By Richard L. Gaw

Staff Writer

Fifty-seven acres of Rose Hill Road in West Grove are about to become a new spray irrigation/lagoon wastewater treatment plant that is designed to better meet the needs of future growth and protect local waterways.

The roots of the treatment plant, located on 333 Rose Hill Rd., date back to 2005, when the London Grove Township Municipal Authority was awarded a $250,000 spray irrigation grant from the Chester County Planning Commission, which it used in the purchase of property previously owned by the Conard Pyle Company. In July 2009, the Municipal Authority was awarded a $5 million H20 PA shovel ready grant, which was earmarked for the construction of a municipal spray irrigation wastewater treatment plant.   

Municipal Authority manager Karen Crossan said that the plant will process an average of 98,000 gallons a day, and will support future public sewer needs for any residential or commercial development.

"It is also going to preserve 57 acres of land, and land application is much cleaner environmentally," she said. "Through the spray irrigation process, aquifers are recharged, so by recycling, it's able to reinvigorate the treated effluent wastewater, and not dumping that fluid into the White Clay Creek and other streams. The benefit of wastewater sewer disposal through groundwater recharge is innovative, and its impact on future generations will be immeasurable."

Crossan said that the plant is scheduled to officially open in July. "The plant is substantially complete, but various logistical components still need to be ironed out," she said.  "The end process of a plant like this is in testing and start-up."

There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and dedication of the new plant on July 1, beginning at 8:30 a.m., on site. The event will include remarks by State Representative John Lawrence, representatives from the London Grove Township Municipal Authority and the Chester County Planning Commission, as well as the Municipal Authority engineers.