Despite its unhappiness with some provisions, the Butler Area Sewer Authority had little choice but to concur with terms of a new consent agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection regarding ridding of stormwater infiltration from the BASA system.

Rejecting the agreement would have doomed the BASA system to a further indefinite moratorium on new construction; much of the 2006 construction season has been lost due to DEP's insistence that a new consent agreement be in place before more residential and business tap-ins can be approved.

As it stands now, 200 new connections will be allowed through 2008 in the seven municipalities BASA serves. Whether that number will be adequate for this growing region remains to be seen.

Although it is an encouraging sign that BASA and DEP finally have reached agreement, it remains troubling that the new agreement denies the authority the right to appeal DEP decisions — something that is not consistent with the rights enjoyed by most individuals, businesses and other enterprises in this free country.

Thus, the heavy-handedness DEP has exhibited throughout its dealings with BASA over the past nine months remains entrenched in the agreement being put in place.

According to M. John Schon, BASA manager, the authority had tried to have that provision deleted from the agreement but was unsuccessful.

The authority is not without blame for the situation that has stymied this year's construction season in BASA municipalities. The authority didn't make enough progress under a previous consent agreement with DEP that expired at the end of last year.

The authority was therefore at a disadvantage in negotiating with DEP, and that disadvantage is evident in the terms of the new agreement.

Among them are that the authority must meet specific benchmarks and show the state agency how much infiltration it has reduced before the issue of additional residential and business connections resurfaces in 2008.

Under the new agreement, BASA will be required to rid its system of infiltration by July 31, 2012. If the authority fails in any terms of the agreement, it will be subject to fines and litigation from DEP.

Understandably, the issue of a sewage tap-in moratorium would again rear its ugly head.

Presumably all BASA municipalities will agree with the agreement as drawn up; actually, while still having the right to say no, they probably have little choice but to concur, if they want to put the current troubling situation to rest.

Summit Township, one of the member municipalities, approved the agreement on Sept. 20. DEP has imposed a deadline of Oct. 13 for the other six municipalities to agree.

The other municipalities are the City of Butler, East Butler Borough and Butler, Center, Connoquenessing and Oakland townships.

With the agreement in place, the municipalities will be required to begin serious work on a long-term sewage disposal plan, which most likely will have significant financial implications for authority customers over the short and long terms.

The infiltration problem already has prompted the authority to begin discussion on how billing should be carried out in the future. One of the possibilities is a change to sewage billing based on water usage, rather than the current flat-rate system.

In 2005, about 31.4 million gallons of sewage overflowed from five BASA pump stations during heavy rain — a situation that has been blamed on the infiltration problem. Fortunately in 2006, BASA has been spared of some of the problems that it could have encountered if there had been an active hurricane season.

Looking back on the BASA-DEP situation, people can wonder what really has been gained by the DEP-imposed moratorium. The new construction that could have occurred during the months the moratorium has been in effect would have had but a negligible effect on the overall sewage volume BASA treats.

To the BASA service area's detriment, no one at the DEP was willing to acknowledge that fact.

The central message tied to the new agreement is clear: BASA has little choice but to fully comply with all provisions of the new accord.