Zelienople does not approve sewer upgrades
Zelienople will not approve its sewer authority’s request for a $64 million treatment plant upgrade for at least two more weeks after residents voiced concerns over the proposed improvements and their cost to ratepayers.
At a meeting Monday, borough council voted to table a resolution which would have approved the Western Butler County Authority’s proposed Act 537 Plan, a document which outlines proposed changes to its wastewater treatment plant, until its July 11 meeting.
Council’s move to table came as residents raised questions about whether the plant improvements would be the most cost-efficient means of increasing sewage capacity, as well as whether the upgrade is fair to Zelienople residents.
Harmony resident Jim Hulings, for instance, asked whether WBCA ratepayers in Zelienople should pay higher sewage rates as a result of the authority’s capital improvements. Hulings argued much of the improvements are aimed at increasing capacity due to residential development in Jackson and Lancaster townships.
Hulings also pleaded with council to consider the ordinance in two weeks after residents have had time to review “25 pages of information that need to be disseminated.”
The concerns raised by Hulings are similar to those which Zelienople and Lancaster officials raised after the plan was introduced in November 2020.
To answer those concerns, the authority assembled a steering committee consisting of two representatives each from Harmony, Jackson, Lancaster and Zelienople, the four municipalities which WBCA serves. In addition, the authority sought a third-party review of its plan by an independent engineering firm, Larson Design Group.
Council President Mary Hess, who served as one of Zelienople’s representatives on the committee, said while Jackson and Lancaster are growing, Zelienople has its own problems that necessitate an upgrade to the authority’s treatment plant.
Hess said the main sewer line in Zelienople is more than 100 years old and is made of terra-cotta. As a result, she said, rainwater easily flows into the aging pipes.
“We have a lot of infiltration caused by just what we have going on in the town, let alone what is brought in,” Hess said. “And most of the sewage that’s brought into the town is brought in through the Harmony Pump Station. So they’re going to upgrade those lines. When they upgrade those lines, it will make massive improvements in our existing problems, especially on Main Street and Spring Street.”
The council president added that Zelienople “was the dissenter in the group” from WBCA’s plans.
“We would not move forward until we had an independent engineering firm come forward,” Hess said. “We also requested that the entire process be taken out of WBCA’s hands and put into a facilitator’s hands (to) control the entire process. We reviewed, sometimes weekly, for multiple hours, every portion of the process. So, all of the things that you presented tonight, we reviewed.”
Zelienople’s proposed resolution to approve the WBCA’s upgrades include two items not included in any other municipality’s resolution, according to assistant borough manager Andrew Spencer.
First, Spencer said, the resolution would not allow the upgrade to exceed the current proposed cost, given the rising price of goods and services. Second, the authority could not borrow money in any way that would restrict Zelienople’s own borrowing power.
Zelienople and Jackson Township are the only two WBCA member municipalities that have not approved the plan; Lancaster and Harmony have previously passed resolutions approving the plant upgrade.
