BUTLER TWP — After prohibiting new sewage connections to the Butler Area Sewer Authority's system for seven months, the state Department of Environmental Protection will once again allow new tap-ins as part of the consent order agreement reached Tuesday.

The authority's board of directors voted 5-0 Tuesday afternoon to accept a new consent order agreement from the DEP, giving the authority 200 connections to the system through 2008.

The agreement also details how and when the authority must rid its system of storm water infiltration or face fines and litigation from the DEP.

Under the new agreement, BASA must rid its system of infiltration by July 31, 2012.

In 2005, about 31.4 million gallons of sewage overflowed from five BASA pump stations during heavy rain because of the infiltration.

Leading up to the 2012 date, the authority must meet benchmarks and show the state agency how much infiltration it has reduced before receiving new connections after 2008.

Then, between Jan. 31 and March 31, 2008, the authority can ask for more connections to the system, all dependent on how much infiltration has been reduced from the system.

The agreement requires the seven municipalities served by BASA to complete a long-term sewage disposal plan. Those are Butler City, East Butler and Butler, Center, Connoquenessing, and Oakland townships, which also need to approve the consent order.

Summit Township voted to approve the consent agreement last Wednesday.

BASA director John Schon expects the other municipalities to take action when they meet early in October.

Authority solicitor Mike Hnath said BASA and the DEP exchanged three or four versions of the consent order before reaching the agreement, signed Tuesday.

While the number of permitted new connections increased from the first draft of the agreement to the final one, other aspects of it — despite the board's efforts — were left unchanged.

Schon said board members decided that, under the circumstances, the agreement signed Tuesday was the best deal available.

Hnath agreed, saying the board had few other options after months of negotiations.

"Ithink the board felt it had no choice," he said.

BASA and the DEP have worked to eliminate the overflows since 2001, when the authority and state agency entered into a similar consent order agreement.

But because the authority failed to complete a 2001 consent order agreement that also sought to eliminate the overflows, the DEP revoked new connections to the BASA system.

BASA, the DEP and the municipalities have negotiated back and forth over the agreement since an initial draft was proposed in May.

The three sides, however, disagreed over the number of new connections permitted to the system each year, timelines to complete the long-term studies, and the inability of BASAto appeal DEP decisions.

The new agreement, though, still denies the authority the right to appeal DEP decisions, a condition the board fought to have eliminated from the agreement.

"They were not willing to do that," Schon said.

Schon expects the DEP will release the connections once all of the municipalities and the DEP have signed the 32-page agreement.

The deadline for the municipalities to approve the consent order is Oct. 13.

Meantime, Schon said the authority's board is going to discuss its permit allocation policy at its Oct. 3 meeting to determine how the new connections will be distributed.