Police investigate death in sewage tank
FRANKLIN TWP — State police are investigating the death of a 61-year-old Ellwood City man in a treatment tank early Tuesday afternoon at the Prospect Borough Sewage Treatment Plant.
Dispatchers at the 911 center sent police, Butler Ambulance Services and multiple volunteer fire departments to the plant on Park Road around 11 a.m. for a man “in a pit.”
Trooper Brian Palko and other officials stood on the gangplank that spans the plant's circular treatment tank and looked down into the tank as Palko investigated in the early afternoon.
It was not initially known if the man fell into the tank or how he died.
A Dalton's Services tanker truck, police vehicles, a Prospect borough truck and several fire trucks were parked at the scene on the rural road, which runs parallel to Route 422 and leads to a Moraine State Park boat launch at Lake Arthur.
A Prospect borough worker at the scene said the plant, which is on Moraine State Park land, processes sewage for the borough. He said co-workers of the man, whose name has not been released by police, were grieving at the plant around noon.
Prospect Mayor James Butler said late Tuesday afternoon that while borough employees work at the plant, none are 61 years old.
Butler said the tank was being cleaned Tuesday, but he had no information on the circumstances that caused the death.
According to the company's website, Dalton's Services of Ellwood City provides septic services and suction trucks, among other services. The company did not return a call from The Butler Eagle on Tuesday.
A news release from Palko said the death is not suspicious in nature.
Butler County Deputy Coroner Larry Barr said an autopsy was to be conducted at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
