The improper discharge of wastewater into Chiques Creek triggered a fine of $22,135 against Penn Township and an ongoing criminal probe, township officials have confirmed.

The uncontested fine imposed by the state Department of Environmental Protection resulted from problems in 2007 with operation of the township's newly expanded sewage treatment plant.

"All calls concerning Penn Township are being referred to the (state) Attorney General's office," John Repetz, DEP spokesman, said in a June 30 e-mail. The Office of Attorney General declined comment June 30 about Penn's Northwestern Lancaster County Water and Sewer Authority.

David Sarley, chairman of Penn supervisors, said June 25 the decision "not to fight" the DEP fine imposed on the authority was meant to "restore credibility" with the state agency.

"We handled it very quickly," he said.

He said the authority has no record of discharge violations since March. He said water and sewer plant operations were performed by the Arro Group starting in March and by Severn Trent Environmental Services starting July 1.

Penn Township awarded Severn Trent a three-year contract to run the plant May 27. The agreement will pay the firm an estimated $450,000 per year.

David Kratzer, township manager since June, said the township had budgeted $537,000 for operating expenses in 2008. He said the contract with Severn Trent is expected to save authority customers $87,000 a year.

In 2003, Penn approved plans to expand the waste treatment plant to accommodate residential and commercial areas within the urban growth boundary. The water and/or sewer service area for 1,050 customers includes the east and south sides of Manheim Borough.

The cost of expansion including engineering was $4.6 million, although officials financed $8.2 million to retire previous debt.

With construction completed by early 2007, township officials understood the state-of-the-art plant was up and running.

Becker cautioned "bugs" are inherent in a system that combines old and new infrastructure.

DEP found 72 violations of the Clean Stream Law after a review of the authority's 2007 discharge monitoring reports. A notice of violation letter from DEP to the authority dated March 4 reported total suspended solids accounted for 32 of the incidents in which the effluent exceeded limitations. Other violations were for oxygen demand (18), phosphorus (9), ammonia-nitrogen (7) and dissolved oxygen (6).

A March 17 letter from David McCracken, authority chairman, to DEP said the township is "making every practical endeavor to improve" operations. It said problems were due to the plant "expansion program" and "failure of key components." It said the Arro Group was retained to take "direct control."

DEP's May 2 letter to the authority proposed a fine of $22,135. The agency's "assessment" considered "the willfulness of the violations, damage to commonwealth waters, history of noncompliance and other relevant factors."

The authority met in executive session May 19 and unanimously approved payment of the fine to DEP.

Also May 19, McCracken signed DEP's consent assessment of civil penalty stating "discharges of sewage into waters" of the state "constitute violations" and "unlawful conduct" under provisions of The Clean Stream Law."

Sarley, who served 25 years with the Pennsylvania State Police, said he made the assumption there was a criminal investigation to go along with DEP's civil investigation after he got a phone call in early March from an Arro employee. The employee, calling from the sewer plant, told Sarley, "The Attorney General's office is here to seize records."

Sarley said, "I don't know what's going to happen with the Attorney General's office. The whole issue was, 'Fix it.' I would have spent more money (on the contract to run authority operations) to make it right down there."

Details about any criminal probe being conducted by the state will become public if investigators file charges for environmental crimes, Nils Frederiksen, OAG deputy press secretary, said June 30.

He said charges in a case involving unlawful conduct in Lancaster County would be filed in the county Court of Common Pleas and a conviction would result in minimum, mandatory fines and the potential for incarceration.

Around the state, he cited seven recent prosecutions of individual, business and municipal defendants for environmental crimes.

Intelligencer Journal correspondent Justin Stoltzfus contributed to this report.