PROSPECT — Borough officials hope to take the lead in developing a 10-municipality regional water and sewer system.

Besides Prospect, the proposed system may include Brady, Connoquenessing, Franklin, Lancaster, Worth and Muddy Creek townships, and Connoquenessing, Portersville and West Liberty. The area would encompass Moraine State Park.

The proposed name is the Moraine Area Sewer and Water Authority.

Jim Willard, borough engineer, said at an informational meeting Wednesday night at the Prospect borough building that the region is growing and is attractive to developers. An authority, he said, would address public water supply and sewage disposal needs, provide planning possibilities for municipalities and promote development.

“Certainly, a regional authority can help promote growth,” Willard said.

He also said that an authority can help municipalities get benefits from natural gas drilling since well drillers need water to use in the fracking process.

“If you have a municipal system in place, you can sell them water,” Willard said.

He said that it also would be a good idea for the municipalities to take a proactive approach to state Department of Environmental Protection regulations. He said that the DEP has not explored too many sewage and water systems in this part of the state yet, but said that it would be nice to have a new system in place whenever the DEP starts looking at the area.

Prospect and Connoquenessing have sewage facilities, and Moraine State Park has water treatment and sewage facilities.

“Out of a 150 square mile area, that’s not a lot,” Willard said.

He said that getting grants for the project as an individual municipality could be tough, but it may be easier with a group of municipalities.

After interest among municipalities and residents is gauged, the next step is to start working on an Act 537 plan, which is a plan for sewage systems that is required by the DEP, Willard said. Discussing the structure of the authority or potential rates is much later.

“It’s just a start. There’s a ton more to discuss,” Willard said.

This was the second informational meeting for the authority. Romel Nicholas, borough solicitor, said it will take several meetings to take any action toward actually forming the authority.

“It takes time,” Nicholas said.

Although the DEP has not begun putting pressure for sewage systems in this part of the state, Nicholas said that the DEP acts aggressively and if it applies a consent order, it is not voluntary, and there can be penalties for noncompliance.

“The DEP is very serious about enforcement,” Nicholas said.

He said no one is forcing any municipality to do anything and that the idea behind the meetings is to lead the communities to an informed decision as to whether they want to be involved in the authority.

Prospect Mayor Jim Butler said that the idea for the authority came about when the borough considered an update to its sewage system. He said the borough decided to look to its neighbors and wants to get everyone involved.

“We can really go about it the right way before things get out ahead of us,” Butler said.

Besides Prospect officials, the only other municipal official at the meeting was Janet Gray, a Franklin Township supervisor. She left before the end of the meeting without comment.

About three or four officials from other municipalities attended an early meeting.

Councilman Ed Robinson said all of the municipalities have expressed some form of interest in the plan.

“Ninety percent of it is good feedback,” Robinson said.

Nick Vacarello of Prospect said that he has a good water well, and may not necessarily want to pay a tap-in fee to connect to a new system.

“I think before you jump into something, you better identify all the thorns in the rosebush,” Vacarello said.

He said that there are a lot of pluses and minuses to forming an authority like this.

“I will be on both sides of the fence,” Vacarello said.

His wife, Rita, noted that many borough residents are on fixed incomes and may not be able to pay an additional bill.

“Another $100 out of a budget is everything,” she said.

Charles Pitchford, who owns a business in Prospect, said that the borough has spent a lot of money to help fix its sewage problems in the past.

“I think there’s a lot of input that Prospect borough can put into the other municipalities,” Pickford said.