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Snyder Environmental Services workers prepare to send a camera down a manhole on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in Stackhouse Park to clear roots from the old sewer pipes before a PVC liner is installed to prevent stormwater from causing sanitary sewage overflow at Dornick Point sewage treatment plant.

Snyder Environmental Services workers prepare to send a camera down a manhole on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in Stackhouse Park to clear roots from the old sewer pipes before a PVC liner is installed to prevent stormwater from causing sanitary sewage overflow at Dornick Point sewage treatment plant.

A wooded trail at Stackhouse Park has become a construction site, and it’s not a change visitors were prepared for, said Westmont borough resident and frequent park user Anne McGrath.

“The devastation is significant,” she said. “Just looking at it as a park user, it totally changed the feel and the magic of that part of Stackhouse.”

Trees have been cleared, though its not certain how many, and heavy machinery has left rigid imprints on the trail and its banks where roots are now exposed. 

But the municipality’s deteriorating sanitary sewer pipes – one of which runs through Stackhouse – often overflow with stormwater. 

Westmont is one of 19 municipalities undergoing major construction to fix sanitary sewer pipes that connect to Dornick Point Sewage Treatment Plant. 

The mission is to end the overflow of untreated sewage during heavy rains because stormwater infiltration is overwhelmed.  

Westmont borough’s sewer contractor, Snyder Environmental Services, has been working in Stackhouse Park since last month.  

Along about a half-mile of the park’s trail sits several large reels of PVC-based pipe liner.

The process of installing the liner entails softening it with steam in a conditioning trailer. 

Then, it is attached to a winch, fed through a downstream manhole and pulled through an upstream manhole. Once the liner is in place, Snyder applies steam pressure to open the liner, providing a new pipe within the old dilapidated pipe. 

Snyder crews cleared trees and altered walking paths at the park to make room for the equipment.

“It’s a temporary inconvenience for a permanent solution,” Snyder project director Brandon Duriez said. 

“The alternative was to clear a 40-foot-wide path and excavate to install new sewer pipes.” 

A lack of communication allowed for visitors to be caught off guard, McGrath said. 

Although the company usually has notified people as they work in an area, the impact at Stackhouse Park came as a surprise to many.

To access manholes necessary for the project, Snyder’s vehicles removed a guardrail at Wyoming Street near Lehigh Street. The crew did not know the manholes they were seeking were located in a park, said Westmont Borough Public Works director Don Blasko. 

“It was miscommunication,” he said. 

Blasko said the company’s workers believed they were in a borough-owned right of way. If the company had known, Blasko said, it would have given the park’s directors notice. 

Not long after Snyder started working in Stackhouse, photos circulated on social media of a “300-year-old” tree that was cut.

Duriez contested the alleged age of the tree. 

“The sewer line was directly underneath that tree; the sewer line was installed in 1920 so the tree was not 300 years old,” he said.

Snyder has seeded grass where heavy machinery destroyed vegetation, and it is growing. 

Duriez said the company’s work requires no more trees to be cut.

During a borough council meeting this week, McGrath urged elected officials to secure a written agreement with Snyder that any damage at the park is remediated at the company’s expense. 

Borough engineer Ken Mesko said he would obtain an agreement with Snyder. 

Russ O'Reilly is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @RussellOReilly.

Russ O'Reilly is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @RussellOReilly.

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