A rock dropped on a sewer line while the contractor was backfilling during installation of the line was the probable cause of a leak discovered Nov. 25, according to Upper Milford Township Manager Daniel DeLong.

The leak occurred in a lateral which connected a home on East Main Street to the new Vera Cruz sewer project. It was reported to township Public Works Coordinator Steve Ackerman late Sunday afternoon and he immediately contacted the Lehigh County Authority, which sent a crew out to stop the leak, then repaired it Nov. 27.

Because the leak occurred in the homeowner's portion of the system, the homeowner will ultimately be responsible for the cost of repair, LCA spokesperson Liesel Adam said, but how the cost will be assessed is still being worked out.

The leak was estimated at about five gallons per minute for four hours.

The LCA immediately reported the leak to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is investigating to determine the extent to which it polluted Leibert Creek and the Little Lehigh Creek.

Both DeLong and Adam pointed out while they don't want to see any sewage discharged into the creeks, prior to the construction of the Vera Cruz sewer project numerous failing septic systems in the area had pipes that ran directly into Leibert Creek.

Adam said as many as 80 percent of the septic systems in the area were failing or in danger of failing before the sewer project was constructed.

Work on the controversial project began about two years ago, and provides sewer service to 262 residential properties and 14 businesses.

The project continues to provoke controversy, in part because of the requirement that all properties which abut the system be connected. Recently, a resident of East Main Street (not the resident on whose property the leak occurred) petitioned township supervisors to find some way to exempt him from the project because his septic system is in good working order and his home is several hundred feet from the sewer line, meaning a major expense for him to install the lateral line from his home to the main sewer.