Township: Vera Cruz Should Not Stink

Vera Cruz residents: Listen up.

The new Vera Cruz Sewer System should not stink. If things are working properly, there should be no odor of raw sewage in Vera Cruz. If you smell sewage, there’s a problem and someone needs to be notified.

This is the lesson that Upper Milford Manager Dan DeLong wants all Vera Cruz residents to take to heart following a Nov. 24 sewer leak on Main Road East that had many residents holding their noses and caused an undetermined amount of raw sewage to pour into Liebert Creek.

It seems that the broken check valve ultimately determined to be the cause of the leak on Main Road East had been leaking for a while, according to DeLong, who says residents have come forward to say that they had been smelling sewage for about two weeks.

“From what Brian [Miller, Upper Milford Township Sewage Officer] observed when they dug down,” DeLong says, “it had probably been leaking for a while before it surfaced.

“The home on the property is about 600 feet away from the leak,” DeLong adds, “behind the other houses. It’s not like it is right in front of their house. The people right there, they definitely have indicated that they smelled it ever since the hurricane.

“It’s kind of like an aroma that everyone in downtown Vera Cruz had become accustomed to,” DeLong says.

But if the new Vera Cruz Sewer System is working as it should, it’s an odor that should be nothing more than an unpleasant memory, he says.