Oak Hill is going to be improving their sewage treatment facilities, but that’s raising concerns in Minden. Currently there are two sewage treatment facilities in Minden. They are the Arbuckle and Oak Hill PSDs. Oak Hill Sanitary board closed Arbuckle PSD on Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 because of many problems at that plant. 

“There are physical problems there that the sewage has not been treated properly for some time,” Bill Hannabass, Oak Hill City Manager, said. “There’s a permit that’s issued by the DEP, Department of Environmental Protection, and that permit has been violated many times.”

The Oak Hill Sanitary Board will be replacing the plant with a pumping station. That pump will move all the wastewater back to Oak Hill Waste Water Treatment plant further up Minden road. George Chef who used to work at the Arbuckle plant years ago.  He said he has concerns about the plan.

“I’ve been working with waste water plants for the last 30 years or so. Any pumping station, if the power goes off, it will fail. And I know that pumping stations they do have back up generators, but they can also fail.”

Hannabass said Oak Hill’s Waste Water Treatment plant will be improved so it can handle the extra waste. Currenty, as part of the overflow plan after heavy rains occur, Oak Hill’s sewage treatment plant ends up dumping some raw sewage into Arbuckle creek. Hannabass added that the improvements will address that issue.

“The very most important reason to improve the sewage is for our health,” stated Hannabass. “It’s unsanitary when you live around streams that are impaired with sewage. It can cause illness all the way up to and including death.”

Despite those assurances, Chef still has concerns. 

“I’m still of the opinion that if they had put their money, a lot less money then they are spending on the pumping station, then they could have improved this plant down here,” he said.

The sewage improvement project is expected to take 2 to 3 years. Hannabass stressed that they are going to be mindful of the PCB contaminated soil and will avoid digging into it.