CONNOQUENESSING — The Connoquenessing Township Sewer Authority on Monday, Feb. 26, directed the engineers developing a public sewage system plan for the township to present its options to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

At a meeting Jan. 31, representatives of the engineering firm presented five options to the authority’s board, ranging in cost from $27 million to $51 million with a capacity of up to 1,100 customers.

Allen Kniss, senior project designer for Gibson-Thomas Engineering, said at the Monday meeting at the Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Company station it could be a while before he is able to speak with DEP officials about the developed options. Kniss added that until the engineers have tentative approval from the DEP, the firm won’t go forward on crafting a plan the authority will actually present to the township supervisors for final approval and implementation.

“We can put together any scenario we want, but it’s going to be the DEP who says, ‘Hey, focus on this one, this is what we’re liking,’” Kniss said. “Gibson-Thomas, we can make anything work, we’re just waiting on them to get back to us.”

Barbara McMillen, contract administrator for Gibson-Thomas, said the firm has developed options based on feedback from the township supervisors, the sewer authority board and comments from residents. The widespread opinion of the township was that a plan developed by Herbert, Rowland and Grubic in 2022 was too costly and invasive to implement. McMillen said while the implementation of Gibson-Thomas’ plan is too far away to give specifics, the engineers are focusing on a cost-effective design.

“We want to address whatever is going to make them happy so the township doesn’t get fined,” McMillen said. “We’re trying to get it down to something affordable.”

Connoquenessing Township has been developing a public sewage plan for years to satisfy Pennsylvania’s Act 537, which requires municipalities to have a plan to address their wastewater needs. The sewer authority has been tasked with crafting and recommending a plan to the supervisors to implement. The township has identified 53 malfunctioning wastewater systems used by its residents — an issue addressed by Gibson-Thomas’ design options.

Also at the meeting, sewer authority board member Lambert Rosenbaum said he would prefer the engineers to move forward on a plan that doesn’t involve connecting Connoquenessing Township’s sewer to Butler Area Sewer Authority. The authority’s chairman, Bruce Steinhiser, said talks with Pennsylvania American Water, which has plans to buy BASA, have stalled because of an appeal against that sale, and Connoquenessing Township doesn’t have time to wait for it to be settled.

“We need to move forward and I think we can always go back if that surfaces again,” Rosenbaum said. “I’m recommending that we move forward with Gibson-Thomas on the options and get started out with the DEP.”