LANCASTER TWP — A more than $10 million planned upgrade to the Western Butler County Authority’s largest pump station has received the assent of its third member municipality Monday.

The Lancaster Township board of supervisors agreed Monday to request the state Department of Environmental Protection approve the sewer authority’s plans to upgrade the Harmony Pump Station, a project estimated at roughly $10.6 million.

Prior to Lancaster’s approval, Jackson Township and Harmony — two of the other three municipalities — both signed off on the authority’s plan. Only Zelienople is yet to approve.

The Harmony Pump Station is in Harmony borough. The water treatment facility is in Zelienople.

Lancaster engineer Tom Thompson said the overall changes to the pump station, in terms of how sewage will be routed to and from the station, are minimal. The authority, in a November 2020 report, noted the current station is five to 10 years away from being overloaded, with the pump station operating at an average of 90% capacity over the prior five years.

The current plan for the Harmony station includes the upgrade of sewage lines flowing into and out of the station, as well as the upgrades to the equipment within the station. Those, in turn, will increase the capacity of the station.

The authority originally submitted to the municipalities the pump station in its proposed Act 537 plan in late 2020, but in the summer of 2021 split the pump station upgrade from its planned improvements to the main water pollution control plant.

At the time, manager Autumn Crawford said this was because the authority received a loan via the Butler County Infrastructure Bank for the station upgrades, and wanted to avoid paying interest on the loan while making no progress, as the Act 537 plan had stalled after being approved by Harmony and Jackson Township. Crawford said she believed the municipalities were more amenable to approving the pump station prior to the pollution control facility.

County infrastructure bank loans provide funds to communities and authorities for infrastructure projects at a low interest rate, with the county subsidizing the interest not paid by the recipient. In 2021, the bank provided loans at a 0.5% interest rate.

Zelienople is the only member municipality to not approve the pump station upgrade, but the municipality is required to assent to the upgrade before the state DEP can approve the plan.

Thompson, who also serves as engineer for Zelienople, said as of Monday the plan remained in consideration by the Zelienople Planning Commission, which provides to the borough council its recommendation of whether to approve the project.