Sewer capacity key to growth

 

By Hilary Bentman, Intelligencer, February 16, 2009

Richland officials have taken the first steps to bringing the bulldozers and building crews back to the township.

Development in the once feverishly growing municipality all but stopped several years ago due to sewage capacity problems at the nearby Quakertown treatment plant.

But Richland supervisors recently approved an update to the township's sewer service plan, a necessary step to increasing the capacity at the plant and eventually lifting the moratorium on new development in Richland.

The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority provides sewer for Richland residents, but most of it is treated at Quakertown's plant through a partnership between the borough and the authority.

The authority gets 45 percent of the plant's capacity for its customers, but has run out of its allotted space.

A few years ago, the authority put a moratorium on new connections for Richland, halting most development until a solution could be found.

That solution, says the authority, is $22 million worth of improvements to the plant and the infrastructure over the next five years to provide for current and future needs. The authority would seek to do hydraulic improvements, construct new pipelines and sewer extensions, and make pump station repairs, as well as buy more capacity at the plant.

Bucks County Water and Sewer will pay for the work, and as of now the authority is not looking at a rate increase. Of course, it is also too early to know the actual costs, said authority spokesman Patrick Cleary.

"We're still in the preliminary stages," he said.

For their part, Quakertown officials have voiced no real resistance to the plan as the authority is footing the bill and the borough doesn't wish to lose the authority as a customer, since that could cause sewer rates for their own residents to rise.

"In principle, it's to Quakertown's advantage, economically, to allow the plant to expand," said Councilman Jim Roberts.

Some measures to free up capacity could be completed in a year or less, said Ken Heydt, executive vice president of Carroll Engineering, which is working with the township on the project.

There are more than 15 building projects planned for Richland that are on hold awaiting sewage hook-ups. How many of these projects are still viable given the economy and the housing market is unclear.

Cleary said the authority will sit down with the developers to see how many are still interested in proceeding.

Two of the major housing projects held up are Front Gate on Station Road, an age-restricted development of 402 condominiums, and Reserve at Woodside Creek, 75 single homes on Paletown Road.

Some projects, like the Reserve at Hidden Ponds, a single home and townhouse development on Station Road, have only a portion of the sewer capacity needed, said township manager Stephen Sechriest.

The township's sewer plan, known as Act 537, is a document that outlines how to get water and sewer to places that will be developed. Heydt said the township's plan and the sewer capacity improvements will accommodate future growth unless officials change sewer service areas or allow for higher density building in the township.

Quakertown's plant handles an average of 3.1 million gallons of sewage a day, with 1 million gallons coming from Richland. With the projected development coming to the township, Heydt said space is needed for an additional 1.343 million gallons of sewage per day over the next 20 years. Currently, the plant has space for only 186,000 gallons per day.

The project must be approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection.

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