BUTLER TWP — The Butler Area Sewer Authority hopes to hear soon from the VA Butler Healthcare facility about its plans to build two new buildings on the New Castle Road campus.

Jim Tomazich, a BASA engineer, told the authority board Tuesday that he sent the VA a letter on Dec. 5 about the VA's need to file a sewage plan with BASA and the state Department of Environmental Protection, but has yet to hear from that federal facility.

Tomazich asked if the board wanted him to file a notice of violation with the VA.

The VA's township facility is hooked into the BASA system via the Deshon watershed, which has occasion to overflow from stormwater and groundwater infiltrating the sanitary sewer lines.

These overflows have plagued BASA for years and the authority is under a DEP agreement to get the extraneous water out of the system and stop overflows by 2012.

Jerry Patterson, authority chairman, asked if the VA had completed any upgrades to its sewage lines on the 80-acre campus. Tomazich said he had been told the sewer pipes had been lined and work had been completed on manholes, but he had not inspected the work nor studied the water-sewage outflow of the campus.

George Stockey said that liners and manholes upgrades were part of a multimillion project done by BASA in the Deshon residential area.

"Can we show anything to them (the VA)?" he asked, referring to reductions in water infiltration as a result of BASA's effort.

Patterson told him yes, BASA had those numbers. He also told Tomazich the authority ought to simply contact the VA about its sewer plans and the new construction.

The board agreed.

When asked later Tuesday about BASA's Dec. 5 letter and contact with BASA on this issue, VA spokesman Dave Virag, said the engineer he spoke to did not know what obligation the VA had to either BASA or the DEP because the VA is a federal entity.

"We just don't know, but we'll look into it," he said.

Virag said groundbreaking for a new nursing home and a drug and alcohol rehab building should be June 30.

Freda Tarbell, a DEP spokeswoman in the Meadville office, said Tuesday the VA must follow state regulations and her office would be following up on the construction issue with both BASA and the VA.