SCRANTON, Pa. — The Lackawanna County commissioners are asking the district attorney to conduct a criminal investigation into polluted runoff from a dam reconstruction project on Roaring Brook Creek in Dunmore.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began an investigation after complaints about sediment and silt in Roaring Brook Creek in the Scranton/Dunmore area earlier this month. Their results have not been released.
The county's office of the general council sent a letter to Powell requesting "that your office open an investigation into this matter and determine if any laws have been violated that would warrant the filing of criminal charges against any entity(s) or individual(s) responsible for this environmental disaster."
"I'm absolutely outraged that this incident was allowed to occur," Commissioner Bill Gaughan said.
Pennsylvania American Water owns the dam and is in the process of a $17 million project to rehab and upgrade the dam at the No. 7 reservoir in Dunmore. The company said lowering water levels in the reservoir resulted in upstream sediment flowing through the outlets and downstream.
Pennsylvania American Water said rock dams were installed to hold sediment back, along with a larger four-foot-high dam of large rocks, called rip-rap, recently installed across Roaring Brook to better control silt sediment from flowing downstream.
The company also closed the reservoir's water-release valves, which has reduced the volume of water currently being released from the dam.
Pennsylvania American Water says all necessary permits were obtained prior to the work commencing and that they are continuing to operate within those permit conditions.
Work on the project began in October 2023, with completion anticipated in the fall of 2024.