WBCA opts to divide sewage proposal
ZELIENOPLE — The Western Butler County Authority split its sewage proposal in two in the hope of getting more imminent approval from its four member municipalities.
Because two municipalities frustrated WBCA's attempts at Act 537 plan approval, the authority on Thursday discussed how it will split the plan in two: It will now first seek approval of its Harmony Pump Station upgrade — a roughly $10.6 million project — and return to the wastewater treatment upgrade, a roughly $53 million project, later.
Amending the Act 537 proposal, a step necessary to receive approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection for its proposed changes, will also require Jackson Township and Harmony — the two members to adopt the proposed plan — to rescind their approvals and move to approve the second plan following a public comment period.
Despite the added effort, authority board members said Thursday that the reasons for this route are several, including their perception that the pump station is a more palatable project to Lancaster Township and Zelienople, the two municipal holdouts on the proposal.
“We have heard from our incorporating municipalities that there is a consensus on the scope and need for the Harmony project; however, Zelienople and Lancaster still have remaining questions and concerns regarding the WPCP (Water Pollution Control Plant) project,” consulting engineer Chad Hanley wrote in a June 30 letter to the four municipalities. “It is equally clear that at this point we are at a stalemate with the scope and presented cost of the WPCP project.”
Pump station
Additionally, the authority signed loan documents with Butler County to receive funds via the Butler County Infrastructure Bank for the Harmony project. Because they would rather use those funds sooner than later — and avoid the potential accounting hassle of earning interest on the loan funds — the WBCA wants to ensure the pump station is done.
One more factor pushing the authority to bifurcate its plan was a June 25 conversation with the state environmental department.
“It was a good conversation with DEP,” Hanley said. “None of it was really unexpected. I think it provided a little bit of closure of what we were working through with them.”
And while the board wants to start the Harmony project soon, amending its Act 537 plan will add costs to both projects, both Hanley and board member Greg Such said.
“I just want to be able to say to the municipality members, 'We had to go back and redo this because some of the municipalities wouldn't agree to the original plan, and it's going to cost us some amount of money starting with roughly $20,000,'” Such said.
WPCP plans
With the remainder of the authority's original plan on hold, the board and administrator Autumn Crawford touched on how they wished to proceed with working with the two municipal holdouts.
Crawford said she wants to convene a steering committee comprised of members from the municipalities to make sure the authority could address or compromise on their concerns regarding the plan.
“Our current tactic of the formal responses between one engineer to another, one solicitor to another has not gotten us anywhere,” Crawford said. “In fact, we're kind of deadlocked.”
She said some candid conversations between the authority and representatives from the member municipalities could yield better results. One example, she said, was conversations she'd had with Zelienople council members. Crawford said while the borough's official response three months ago was that it was unsure of what it would like to see from the plan, that's not the whole picture.
“At least this council member's indicating that they want to see a bigger number dedicated to I&I (inflow and infiltration) correction in the borough,” she said.