New way of cleaning water cutting down on smell in Cranberry Township

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — There’s a new way of cleaning water in Cranberry Township, and it cuts down on the smell.

Improvements at the Brush Creek Treatment Plant were seven years in the making.

Cleaning dirty water can be a smelly job, but the plant on Powell Road captures and treats 83 percent of odors, which officials said is unique to Cranberry and is good news for the surrounding neighborhoods.

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There’s also a new pump station that sorts out the larger items that end up at the plant. Anything smaller than 54 inches can make it to the plant, so that includes matchbox cars and socks a child might throw down the toilet.

The biggest change to the way wastewater is treated are membranes full of hollow fibers, allowing clean water through and keeping dirty water out. The membranes make it possible to treat a lot of water in a small footprint.

After eight to 10 hours at the plant, the clean water ends up in Brush Creek. The plant pumps out an average of 4 million gallons, but it has the capacity to do much more.

Sewer rates in Cranberry Township went up to pay for the $48 million plant expansion, and they are not likely to go back down.

Dozens of new businesses, restaurants, housing developments coming to Cranberry Dozens of new businesses, restaurants, housing developments coming to Cranberry

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