More than six months after the city was ordered to improve its antiquated water and sewer system, Taneytown has received a $450,000 state grant to help pay for a $4 million waste-water treatment plant expansion.
The 40-year-old system has been blamed for a series of incidents after heavy rains last year in which raw sewage backed up into the basements of homes and untreated waste water flowed through drainage ditches.
In November, Taneytown officials signed an agreement with the Maryland Department of the Environment, promising to improve
the system by 1999.
"This is being done, and current maintenance programs are being executed, to correct the problems," Taneytown City Manager Charles Boyle said.
In addition to expanding the plant, Boyle said, it will be upgraded to meet state and federal requirements for removing nitrogen -- a common byproduct of fertilizer runoff.
State officials said that improving municipal treatment plants will help achieve the state goal of reducing nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay by 40 percent by 2000.
Construction is expected to begin in February 1998, and the project is due to be completed by June 1999.
Pub Date: 6/26/97
