Zelie OKs sewer authority plan
Major infrastructure upgrades at the Harmony Pump Station are on the horizon after Zelienople Borough Council approved plans for its upgrade Monday.
Western Butler County Authority, or WBCA, the sewer authority that serves Harmony, Jackson and Lancaster townships and Zelienople, now has approval from all four municipalities to perform a more than $10 million upgrade to its largest pump station. WBCA now needs approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Zelienople council unanimously approved the motion without discussion, more than a month after Lancaster — the third municipality to approve WBCA’s plan — gave its assent.
In November 2020, WBCA reported the station had operated at an average of 90% of its capacity during the prior five years, and estimated it was just five to 10 years away from being permanently over capacity.
Proposed upgrades to the station, designed to increase its capacity and lengthen its useful life, include equipment changes within the station as well as upgrades to the sewage lines running to and from the station.
WBCA originally submitted its plan to upgrade the station alongside major changes to the water pollution control facility in a 2020 Act 537 plan — a document required by the state environment department when wastewater facilities plan to make changes — but opted to split the pump station from the pollution facility after talks within two municipalities stalled in the summer of 2021.
Autumn Crawford, WBCA manager, said at the time she believed Lancaster Township and Zelienople, which had been reluctant to approve the plan, would be more amenable to approving the Harmony Pump Station more immediately than the more expensive pollution facility. Additionally, the authority had received a loan via the Butler County Infrastructure Bank to make improvements to the pump station, and Crawford said WBCA did not want to make interest payments on the loan without actually upgrading the station.
