Commissioners: Investigate ‘Environmental Disaster’

Citing severe environmental damage to Roaring Brook and the Lackawanna River and a potential public health threat to thousands of residents, Lackawanna County Commissioners Bill Gaughan, Matt McGloin, and Chris Chermak today asked county District Attorney Mark Powell to conduct a criminal investigation of the recent release of massive amounts of sediment from the No. 7 reservoir in Dunmore.

Pennsylvania American Water owns the dam. The sediment was released as early
as February 2 amid an ongoing company project to upgrade the 152-year-old dam at the head the 100-million-gallon reservoir on Roaring Brook, a major tributary of the Lackawanna River.

County General Counsel Donald J. Frederickson Jr. sent a letter to Powell requesting, “that your office open an investigation into this matter and determine if any laws have been violated that would warrant the filing of criminal charges against any entity(s) or individual(s) responsible for this environmental disaster.”

"I'm absolutely outraged that this incident was allowed to occur,” Commissioner Bill Gaughan said. “It essentially flushed down the drain the decades of hard work to restore the Lackawanna River. We are asking the District Attorney to open an investigation into this incident so that someone will be held accountable."

“Improving and maintaining the quality of life in our area is something that we all take great pride in daily,” Commissioner Matt McGloin added. “To have a major miscalculation like this by the Water Company and DEP is astounding. It has potentially caused damage that could take years for our waterways to recover from. We are urging our District Attorney’s Office to investigate this disaster to determine if any laws have been violated.”

“The thought that a contractor or anyone else would blatantly discharge any sort of pollutant into any of our waterways is outrageous. I would request a full investigation into this situation as soon as possible. We’ve worked hard over the years cleaning up damaged and polluted waterways throughout the area and cannot allow this to continue,” Commissioner Chris Chermak said.

Read the letter to the District Attorney here.