Take a good look at the water project that Prospect borough council is proposing. Something doesn’t add up.

They’re discussing a $3.2 million water line through the heart of Prospect. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which operates Moraine State Park, has committed $800,000 to the $3.2 million project to get the water line extended to its Clear Valley/south shore area.

Pennsylvania American Water expects to sell enough water to cover the remaining $2.4 million by requiring 205 Prospect residents along the route to tap in — at an initial cost estimated at $1,500 to $3,500 apiece.

The residents have been told that the park’s contribution is an incentive for them to jump in. Officials say the park, which was founded 46 years ago, wants a public water line because its original, well-fed water network is beginning to fall apart.

Hmm. Would the source of the water make any difference in the longevity of Moraine’s water treatment or distribution systems? Common sense says it should not matter whether the water comes from an old well or a brand-new service line from a private, for-profit water company: the aging distribution system would have to be replaced either way.

Moraine is a huge park — more than 16,000 acres. It sits atop an equally huge aquifer which, so far, has supplied all the park’s water needs. The supply seems almost endless.

Until now, the aquifer’s output has been sufficient for everyone — except maybe those who earn bonuses for signing up water customers.

It might be argued that water quality is an issue. Much of Moraine’s land is reclaimed strip mine, which typically means iron, sulfur and other chemical impurities leaching into the underground water supply.

But the hole in that argument is that Moraine will continue using the same old well water in most parts of the park. This is evident because the water line being proposed for Moraine is only 1.5 inches in diameter, capable of supplying only a fraction of the park’s water.

Actually, a 1.5-inch main sounds less like a utility service than it does a subterfuge — an excuse to impose water service on the residents of Prospect, much in the same way they’ve been forced to take sewage service from Moraine’s DEP-operated sewage treatment plant for the past 29 years.

By coincidence, that sewage treatment plant is about to be rebuilt. DEP officials in 2011 said they need to expand because it’s hydraulically overloaded by the 21 million gallons of sewage the park generates annually — plus the 48 million gallons generated by Prospect customers.

Is a pattern emerging?

Let’s lean on common sense again and consider the region’s likely pattern of development. The key hot spots lie just west of Prospect and Moraine State Park, in the form of undeveloped I-79 interchanges at Portersville and Route 422.

We’re not privy to Pennsylvania American Water’s master plan, but it would make sense for the utility to extend its lines to these two interchanges in anticipation of shopping centers, hotels, industrial plants, warehouses and other commercial or residential developments. What developer wouldn’t want to recreate the magic of a Grove City Outlet Mall or a Cranberry Crossroads?

Nobody has said publicly that developers have designs for either interchange, but absent a thorough, reasonable explanation for a water main being thrust on a community that doesn’t want it, suspicions will fly.

Part of the infrastructure business is speculative — water, sewer and power companies expand and extend their services to locations where they think business will develop.

New business should be expected and welcomed.

But let the developers and speculators use their own money to attract the new businesses. Give the residents of Prospect a thorough explanation of what’s being planned, and let an informed electorate decide whether or not it wants, needs or can even afford this service.