Township: LCA Workers Said Leak Could Wait; Didn't Undertand System

The Vera Cruz Sewer System is different than traditional sewer systems.

And it’s this difference that contributed to both the size of a leak in the system on Nov. 25 on Main Road East and to the Lehigh County Authority’s seemingly lackadaisical response to reports of the leak throughout the afternoon and evening on that Sunday, according to Upper Milford Township Manager Dan. DeLong.

“Normally a sewer system is an individual house type deal,” DeLong explains, “in which one house flows to a pipe.

“Because this system is a completely enclosed pressurized system, each house has an impact on every other house if a check valve breaks.

“It’s very similar to a centralized water system. If a homeowner’s line leaks, all the water from the main is pouring out from the homeowner’s line. When that happens the general service entity shuts the valve off. Perhaps that’s what should have been done in this case, but it wasn’t.”

It seems that it may have been the unfamiliarity of those answering the phone at LCA with a pressurized system that led them to tell the half-dozen or so Upper Milford residents who called to report the leak on that fateful Sunday that someone would be out to handle it Monday morning.

With a more traditionally designed sewer system, DeLong explains, a leak report can wait until morning. However, with a pressurized system, such as the one in Vera Cruz, a leak must be dealt with more swiftly.

DeLong says he feels confident that those picking up the phone at LCA have now been trained to understand the difference and handle trouble calls more appropriately.