Nov 14, 2017 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg Borough Council voted Monday to move forward with plans to rehabilitate the borough’s sewage treatment plant, one of three options council was considering to meet a state requirement to address sewage overflows.

Council voted 8-0 to begin developing plans to rehabilitate the plant, which is the least costly of the three alternatives that were under consideration. Councilman Bryan Johnston was absent from the meeting.

The borough is required by the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop a plan to reduce sewage overflows at its plant that occur during heavy rain and result partly from having a combined sanitary and storm water collection system.

Council has been discussing the matter for the last three or four years and more recently has been waiting for cost information on the three alternatives.

The two other alternatives are rehabilitating the plant and changing to a new treatment technology and abandoning the plant and combining service with Franklin Township Sewer Authority.

According to information prepared by borough engineer Bob Dengler, the estimated cost of rehabilitating the plant is $15.4 million. The estimated costs of changing to a new treatment technology is $16.8 million and of combining with Franklin Township $16 million.

The option of combining with Franklin Township would require the borough to cover the costs of expanding the Franklin authority plant to handle the additional sewage flow from the borough.

Although grant and loan financing and other factors still must be taken into account, rehabilitating the plant is estimated to increase the average monthly sewage bill from $25 a month to $54 a month. The highest cost option would increase the monthly bill to $76 a month.

Councilman Miles Davin said cost was the main factor in council’s decision.

“It was basically economic reasons,” he said. “”We wanted to keep the monthly bill as low as possible.”

The estimated costs of rehabilitating the plant will cover constructing a large storage tank to hold sewage overflows, repairing and replacing old sewer lines where there is ground water infiltration and rehabilitating the plant.

Work on the plant will be extensive, Davin said.

“Basically, we are building a new plant,” he said.

The proposed plan also will allow the borough possibly to complete the work in phases and avoid borrowing money all at one time, borough manager Mike Simms said.

The engineer is currently developing an Act 537 sewage plan for the project, which is expected to be completed in about six months, Simms said.

Council will then begin discussing the best way to fiancé the project through grants and loans from DEP, PENNVEST or through the federal Rural Utilities Service. Work on the project probably will not begin until 2020, Simms said.