Rob Wodarski was upbeat Thursday as the big tanker truck labeled “residual waste” backed up to the side door of a pretty brick building on King’s Highway that had a disastrous encounter with waste a little over a week ago.
“We’ve seen worse, definitely,” he said, speaking from his experience with JnJ Environmental of East Norriton, Montgomery County. It’s one of those companies you call when, say, a delivery person from an oil company hooks his tanker’s hose up to the wrong pipe and pumps 150 gallons of heating oil into the septic system.
That, as it happens, is exactly what unfolded at the Mennonite church on March 25, a Tuesday. The oil bubbled up through the floor vents and toilets and soaked into the walls.
By chance, a parishioner with a key stopped by to use the bathroom and discovered the disaster shortly after it happened. Otherwise, no one would have known until the next day.
It was bad enough as it was. The 1876 structure was closed and declared a hazardous materials zone.
Wodarski said he and the rest of the crew had made great progress, collecting several big barrels of waste, flushing the system and replacing drywall and wall studs that had absorbed oil and sewage.
“We do a total restoration,” he said.
Insurance is covering the work, but it’s still unclear when services can resume. In the meantime, though, nearby is hosting the congregation for worship, Sunday school, choir practice and Bible study.
An Upper Milford parishioner who didn’t want her name used said the congregation is grateful to the Lutheran church and bears no ill will toward the delivery driver who made the mistake.
“There’s room for forgiveness,” she said.
Morning Call reporter Daniel Patrick Sheehan can be reached at 610-820-6598 or dsheehan@mcall.com
