Avoca Plagued With Water Runoff From Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport

Sept. 9, 2005
Reports indicate filling in or relining a retention basin could alleviate the issue caused when the airport's holding pond leaks into mine sinkholes.

AVOCA -- The borough says it is having water runoff problems generated from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

Runoff coming from airport catch basins and runoff ponds are the problems. But with airport management claiming the problem isn't theirs, borough council is taking up the matter up with the Luzerne and Lackawanna County commissioners, who make up the airport board.

The fundamental difficulty, as council sees it, is that the airport holding ponds leak into mine sinkholes, and then emerges in various parts of the borough, demolishing backyards, overwhelming storm drains. On two recent occasions, the water floodedMain Street to the point where it needed to be sandbagged, council members said.

A report on the issue drawn up by engineers hired by the airport authority was obtained by the borough from Luzerne County, and indicates that, although the airport does not accept any liability for the problem, either filling in or relining an airport retention basin could help alleviate the situation.

The borough view, according to Solicitor Charles McCormick, would favor relining the catch basin, rather than filling it.

??We need a slow(er) release rather than what we now have,? he said.

Suggestions were made by council members that the basin might have been smaller than the designs called for, and extra flow might have been directed into the basin, but these were discounted by solicitor McCormick as being unproven at this point. Borough engineers would have to research those issues further before they could be stated with certainty, he said.

The airport authority has claimed that it does not have the funding to tackle the repair of the holding ponds, but Councilwoman Maryann Tigue asked whether that should be end of the matter.

Council agreed to contact all Luzerne and Lackawanna commissioners and request they address the matter at their next meetings, with an aim to resolving the problem.

In another drainage-elated issue, council noted the Quail Hill Development had received a notice of violation from the Luzerne Conservation District, mainly dealing with storm water and drainage issues. The contractor has ninety days to resolve the 10 issues noted, but must complete work within 30 days of receiving materials.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.