CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Updates to the township’s long-term sewer service plan include a multi-million-dollar proposal that would construct a public treatment system to serve some areas of the municipality.

The cost of the project is estimated at $14.8 million, and the township’s Act 537 plan — a municipal planning document required by state law — says such a project would take about five years to complete.

The township supervisors will hear an update on the plan at their 7 p.m. meeting Wednesday at the municipal building at 102 Township Drive, Refrew.

The township also is accepting written comments on the plan through Monday.

The project would construct a waste water treatment plant near the intersection of Dick Road and Boy Scout Road that would be operated by a newly-created municipal authority formed by the township, and serve the township’s Route 68 corridor as well as areas to the north and south of that road.

The rest of the township would “retain its rural character,” according to the plan.

The project would be financed through a state loan and by tap fees, which the plan estimates to cost $3,000 per EDU, a calculation of wastewater flow in cubic feet. A one-family home would normally have one EDU, while a business or multifamily home might have multiple EDUs.

Once the system is complete, the plan estimates, it will cost the township about $317,000 per year to run and about $671,000 in yearly debt service payments. Monthly charges to residents and businesses tied into the system are estimated at $68 per month per EDU, according to the plan.

The plan projects that it would take 2½ years to design and acquire permits for the treatment facility, another year to find financing for and bid the project, and two more years before construction would be done.

A second phase to the work — bringing public sewer service to The Woodlands — also is mentioned in the planning documents, but that would be “implemented at a future date.”

The updated plan states public sewers are required to “promote and accommodate growth anticipated in the area.”

Sewage service in the township now is provided through a dozen private, small treatment facilities that serve housing developments. Two of those facilities discharge into the Butler Area Sewer Authority system; the others discharge into unnamed tributaries.

Other service is provided through private, on-lot septic systems for individual residences.

The township’s updated Act 537 plan says it’s not feasible to expand the private, small-flow facilities to handle growth, which the township pegs at a yearly rate of about 1.4 percent. The plan also says that some on-lot systems are malfunctioning, and that tests found the area’s soil is “generally unsuitable” for such systems, which generally use septic tanks.

Township officials did not return messages left Monday seeking information on the plan.