NARROWSBURG, NY — After several years of neighbors’ complaints and National Park Service testing at its outflow to the Delaware River, representatives of Aqua America last week appeared before the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) to detail their wastewater operations at the Masthope Community in Lackawaxen Township.

Alan Roth, director of wastewater operations, outlined his company’s involvement since taking over the site from C&S Water and Sewer Associates in 2006.

Roth apologized for his appearance at UDC and was careful to avoid directly contradicting NPS test findings. However, Roth said his company’s daily testing of the outflow showed only nine “excursions” or reportable incidents when the system’s releases had exceeded water quality parameters required in its PA Department of Environmental Protection permit since 2006.

NPS Superintendent Kris Heister did not respond, but UDC Chair Al Henry asked why then was there a discrepancy with NPS findings.

Roth said the issue could have been the system’s “storm mode,” occurring during heavy rain. He said there could then be “the perception” of raw sewage, when treatment is in that mode, as those releases are gray and “not the best.”

He said the sewage smell, reported on or about busy holiday weekends, is likely from the clearance of fermented waste, which had sat in the low pressure feeder pipes of previously unoccupied homes, when people returned and began using water.

Roth presented a slide show, detailing the rundown conditions of the system when Aqua took over the system, which serves about 1,000 users. He said Aqua has spent over $1.5 million in upgrades in the past nine years, $100,000 this year and plans additional spending of $150,000 annually through 2019.

Separately, Tom Fikslin of the Delaware River Basin Commission reported that preliminary results of DRBC water quality testing at tributary confluences in the Delaware showed an improvement of ambient water quality in the river, since the current standards were put in place in 1992.

Asked if those results could result in revised quality standards in sewage treatment outflows, Fikslin said that would be unlikely, unless the DRBC commissioners decide to change them.

In other business, at the request of Fremont delegate Jim Greier, the council decided to send a letter to the publisher of New York Outdoor News, in response to a recent column expressing concerns about low-water impacts on the upstream fisheries near confluence of east and west branches.

Greier said the “bad publicity” in the influential publication could seriously impact the area’s largely fishing-based tourism economy.