CONNOQUENESSING TWP — The township took a step to address its yearslong sewage issue on Wednesday night, June 5.

Supervisors agreed to a consent decree from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, requiring them to implement an official plan to address municipal sewage needs.

“This was a necessary step in the process,” said township supervisor Angela Fleeger.

Fleeger said the board of supervisors first received this consent decree in April during an executive session meeting between the board, the DEP and the Connoquenessing Township Sewer Authority — a separate municipal board established in 2019.

Connoquenessing Township has been struggling to implement a municipal sewer plan since 2018, when the then-sitting board of supervisors approved an Act 537 plan and submitted it to the DEP, which approved it in early 2019. However, by 2021, the township had put a pause on implementing the sewage plan due to public disapproval and cost concerns.

The situation came to a head in June 2023, when the township received a letter from the DEP saying it was in violation of the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act for not having a workable public sewage plan in place.

Under section 750.5 of Act 537 of the Pennsylvania state code, “Each municipality shall submit to the department an officially adopted plan for sewage services for areas within its jurisdiction within such reasonable period as the department (meaning the DEP) may prescribe.”

The text of the consent decree will be made available for public viewing at the township building Thursday. Fleeger said the decree consists of a specific series of actions the township needs to perform by certain deadlines.

“It is time-bound, and it has different tasks and things that we need to accomplish through the consent decree,” Fleeger said.

In the coming months, the township will move forward with putting together a revised Act 537 plan, which starts with completing “sanitary surveys” — inspections of the water system.

“We’ll have 150 days from the approval date of the consent agreement to get those completed,” said township solicitor Andrew Menchyk. “DEP will be participating in those and we have to give DEP 20 days notice of any surveys.”

In addition, the board of supervisors approved a resolution to work with local engineering firm Herbert, Rowland & Grubic to prepare and submit the revised plan.

Some residents, such as Rob Belles, don’t believe a municipal sewage system is necessary to begin with.

“They're pushing a plan through a township that doesn't need it,” Belles said. “It's a rural community. You've got a handful of private sewage systems that are malfunctioning, and a majority of the sewage systems that have zero problems. Why fix a problem that doesn’t exist?”

However, at least one resident, who briefly served on the sewer authority at one point, believes positive progress is being made.

“The sewer authority’s making good progress as far as getting the plans done,” said Bill Long. “I think if they follow what the DEP has requested and suggested to them, then it will be a very big success.”