Sewage Authority to Notify Realtors of New Resolution

by Nathan Lasher

The Kittanning Sewage Authority decided, during a meeting held last night, that it will be notifying local realtors of a resolution that they have recently passed involving sanitary and storm sewer separation.

“Last month we passed a dye test resolution that requires, upon resale in the borough, before somebody can transfer their property they have to have their lateral tested to make sure it’s not broken or there’s not storm water infiltrating our sanitary sewer system,” said Authority Solicitor Bob Zunich. “So, the homeowner’s responsibility will be to repair the lateral if it’s broken prior to them selling to a new owner. That’s a resolution that’s very popular throughout western Pennsylvania now.”

During the meeting, Zunich said he’d be happy to write up a letter and send it to all of the realtors that will be affected by the resolution in order to notify them of the change. “We thought that we should give everybody notice, so before they came in here and said, ‘why do I have to do this?’ they see it,” he said.

According to the resolution, any person in the Borough of Kittanning wishing to sell a house, in those areas where sanitary and storm sewer separation is in operation, must first possess a Document of Certification from the Municipal Authority. In order to attain a Document of Certification, the interested person must submit an application to the Municipal Authority at least fourteen days before the date of sale. At that time, at a cost of $75, a representative of the Sewer Authority will perform a dye test, smoke test, or air test of the sewer drainage system on the property to be sold. If an illegal storm or surface water connection or malfunctioning drainage system is discovered by the test, then no Document of Certification will be issued until the illegal connections or malfunctioning drainage system is removed or repaired. The system must then be retested and certified as satisfactory by the Authority.

Temporary Documents of Certification may be issued between November 15 and April 1 if testing cannot be performed because of weather conditions. In that case, testing will need to be completed as soon as the weather permits. A temporary document may also be obtained if fixing an illegal connection or malfunctioning system would require such a length of time as to create a practical hardship for the applicant.

The Authority decided to make the resolution in order to help eliminate storm and surface waters from entering into the sanitary sewer system. “It’s something that all the municipalities put in now,” said Co-Chairperson Mike Swartz. “This insures that before a property is sold, it is inspected to make sure that it is in compliance. People do things to their property after we go through that we’re unaware of. So, if they have breached that contract or done anything to that sanitary tap to infiltrate it with things like storm water or downspouts and stuff like that, they have to correct it before they sell it.”

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