It's six months past the deadline for the City of Sharon to adopt a plan to deal with problems at the city's sewage treatment plant but there's still no plan.

Council Thursday tabled a resolution that would get the ball rolling on the city's Act 537, or sewage treatment, plan.

Councilman George Gulla said he doesn't think he's equipped with enough information to make an informed decision to vote on the plan.

The state Department of Environmental Protection set a deadline of November 2001 for submission of the plan. Months ago council submitted a request to DEP asking for an extension until the end of May but so far the agency hasn't responded, said William Madden, city solicitor.

The city's sewer plant is exceeding its capacity by 2.2 million gallons a day.

Council President Fred Hoffman said he will not support a "$20 million fishing expedition." Hoffman said he's at the point where he would rather DEP officials tell the city what they need to do to remedy the problem.

"Personally I'm willing to pay for a new sewer plant," Councilman Lou Rotunno said. He said he doesn't want to spend any more money looking for leaks.

After council rejected a plan in October 1999 to expand the plant at a cost of $10 million, city officials came up with a new plan to reduce the amount of inflow by repairing cracked or collapsed pipes, removing down spouts that feed into the sewer system and repairing leaky manholes.

The city has already spent more than $2 million in grant money eliminating excess water going to the plant. Daniel J. Goncz, municipal services group manager for Pittsburgh engineers Gannett Fleming, told council in August it will cost an additional $8 million to $10 million to eliminate enough water to bring the city in compliance.

The cost to build a new treatment plant would be about $19 million, according to Goncz.

Hoffman said he's concerned about passing the cost of a new plant onto taxpayers.

Hoffman said a DEP representative involved with the Intergovernmental Study Committee recommended several months ago that the city hold off on the plan until the committee completed their sewage study of the Shenango Valley. Hoffman said the city may not be able to wait because they don't know when the study will be finished.