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Peters Township Sanitary Authority rates to increase

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 3 min read
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The start of 2018 will mean higher rates for Peters Township Sanitary Authority service customers.

An anticipated increase of 9.9 percent “to the average sewer customer” goes into effect Jan. 1, according to Enoch Jenkins, authority general manager, with another increase of 6 to 8 percent targeted for 2020.

The additional money is going toward improvements that will allow the authority, which serves about 6,000 customers in 13 square miles in the western part of the township, to accommodate sufficient capacity while meeting the requirements of a state Department of Environmental Protection corrective action plan.

“The original projection was going to be a 13 percent increase in 2018, with 10 to 12 (percent) increases in 2020,” Jenkins told members of Peters Township Council during their Dec. 18 meeting. “So we try to make sure we’re reining costs in to minimize the increase on rate payers.”

A new $20 million-plus project to replace the Donaldson’s Crossroads Water Pollution Control Plant off West McMurray Road is under construction, the progress of which Jenkins discussed in a special report to township council during its Dec. 18 meeting.

Although the schedule at one point called for the project to wrap up by the end of 2017, completion now is targeted for July. Jenkins cited several factors for the delay, including nearby Chartiers Creek overflowing its banks on two occasions this year.

“There wasn’t any major damage, but the issue with the flooding is that it took several days to pump all the creek water back out of the plant,” he said.

Plans also call for a $1 million dewatering facility, which removes liquids from sewage sludge to prepare it for landfills. Completion is anticipated for October.

“The award winner of the plant construction contract was $3 million less than the pre-bid total construction estimate. So with the additional amount that was left on the table, the authority decided to move forward with the project,” Jenkins explained about the dewatering facility.

A third project involves expanding the capacities of two half-century-old interceptor sewers, the large-diameter lines that receive wastewater from trunk sewers, as part of the DEP’s corrective action plan.

“To comply, the authority has begun design and permitting for the augmentation of the Giant Oaks and Oakwood Road interceptors,” Jenkins said. “This work will entail realignment and upsizing of approximately 9,200 feet” of various sizes of pipe.

“Some of the property owners have pretty extensive structures on the sewer right of ways, which aren’t supposed to be there,” he told council. “So we’re trying to work with them and at least get the sewers where they need to be without too much headache to the property owners.”

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2019, Jenkins said, with a finish date that fall.

In 2015, council approved an agreement for the township to provide a guarantee that enabled the authority, an autonomous entity established to administer the sewer system, to take on a $7.5 million bond issue. Other money for the improvement projects came from a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority Loan, along with Department of Economic and Community Development Local Share Account funds.

Paul Lauer, township manager, said that further improvements are likely to be necessary with the development of the former Rolling Hills Country Club property, on which plans call for a municipal park and new Peters Township High School.

“One of the challenges is that the interceptor that services (the property) is in need of upgrading, and one of the things we’re attempting to do with the sanitary authority is to look at some type of partnership to make that happen,” he said, explaining that grants could be available to offset the costs.

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