Plumstead will conduct a water study that could determine
how a proposed expansion of public sewers would affect the township, but the research won't be tied to whether the expansion
happens.
Though they approved putting the study out to bid,
a majority of supervisors on Tuesday said its results won't hold up a potential lawsuit settlement with the Bucks County Water
and Sewer Authority.
“It can't undo the past, but it will help guide
us in the future,” said Supervisor Stacey Mulholland. “I see these things as parallel and not intertwined.”
Since April, supervisors have been embroiled in debate
over the settlement, which would end a lawsuit by the county authority that claims the township violated a 1978 agreement
to stay out of the sewer business.
The water study has been pushed by opponents of the
agreement, who charge it would more than double the number of approved authority hookups in Plumstead, harming the aquifer
by pumping sewer water to treatment plants outside the township.
The board's decision on the study brought a sharp
rebuke from one of two supervisors who want the settlement delayed until after the study, which is expected to be completed
early next year.
“Basically, we're issuing (bids) for a study
that the majority of the board is not waiting for and is going to ignore,” said Housley Carr, who was joined by Betsy
Helsel.
“We spend months and months on really silly,
parochial things in the township,” he said. “On an issue of such importance as this, (next year) doesn't seem
like a long period of time.”
Mulholland said the township already has a partial
water study that it can refer to. It isn't realistic to wait for the new one to be completed, given legal negotiations, she
said.
The agreement would make Bucks County Water and Sewer
Authority the sole sewer provider for an area that includes the stretch between routes 611 and 413. Three developments calling
for site specific plants would also be moved onto the authority's lines.
Backers say the settlement would establish a well-defined
sewer district that is far less expansive than Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority now claims.
They say township negotiators are working to strictly
limit the number of hookups the authority could offer.
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