Resident wants answers about Dupont sewage

DUPONT – When Ed Donlin or his two neighbors on Skytop Drive flush their toilets, wash clothes or take a shower, the discharge overflows from a manhole in the middle of the road spilling raw sewage into his yard and driveway.

And although the smell and sight is unsettling, Donlin said he is most upset that nobody has claimed ownership of the sanitation line.

“This has been overflowing for three to four weeks and I’m getting nothing but inaction,” Donlin said.

Donlin pays the Lower Lackawanna Sewer Authority about $40 per quarter for service, but he said Dupont borough and the authority have denied they are responsible to repair the blockage.

The manhole is about 5 feet deep that accesses a 6-inch wide terra-cotta pipe that services Donlin’s residence and two other homes.

On Saturday, the manhole filled up, spilling raw sewage onto the road and Donlin’s property leaving behind toilet paper and other material.

“I talked to the borough and they said they don’t own it. The borough checked into it and talked to the Lower Lackawanna Sewer Authority and I was told that they don’t own it either,” Donlin said.

Messages left at the Lower Lackawanna Sewer Authority were not returned on Saturday.

Donlin’s neighbor, Geraldine Coolbaugh, said there have been problems with the sanitation line in the past, but she wasn’t aware that it has been overflowing for the past three to four weeks.

Coolbaugh said she replaced her sanitation pipe from her home to the manhole a few years ago.

After Donlin told her about the raw sewage overflowing from the manhole Saturday morning, Coolbaugh called Roto-Rooter, a sewer, septic tank and drain cleaning service.

Ron Woodall, of Roto-Rooter, used a snake, a wire or coil used to clean drains, to find out if Coolbaugh’s sanitation pipe is blocked or broken.

As Woodall was pushing the snake through the pipe, water was discharging from Coolbaugh’s residence into the manhole. When he stopped, so did the discharge.