TodayHampden commissioners approve bond
Board members critical of Chesapeake Bay mandate requiring expensive sewage upgrades.
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Article RatingHampden Township officials are upset, but they say they have no choice but to spend the money necessary to meet the requirements of a multi-state effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
Commissioners voted Thursday to approve a $10 million bond issue that will allow the township to continue with $38 million of upgrades n- about $5 million to meet nitrate and phosphate reductions levied by the state Department of Environmental Protection n- planned to its sewage treatment system.
“We’re spending an awful lot of money for a negligible effect,” Commissioner John Thomas argued.
But it’s something the commissioners must address, he said, as municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are required to substantially reduce nitrate and phosphate discharges from their sewage treatment plants by 2010.
Thomas and fellow Commissioner Al Bienstock explained that agriculture in central Pennsylvania contributes the overwhelming majority of nitrates, phosphates and sediment to the bay n- as much as 85 percent -n but to date no expenditures have been levied or required for remediation.
The same can be said about municipalities that lack treatment facilities, they added, with no state mandate for denitrification systems in residential septic systems.
But if a municipality fails to meet the target risks, Thomas said, DEP may refuse to issue sewage permits for new houses.
“We’re fixing up the plant to meet the Chesapeake Bay issue,” he said.
Bond plans
Of the new bond, $9.25 million will be directed towards expanding the township’s Roth Lane treatment plant. The township plans to phase out its Pinebrook plant.
The remaining money will be used on the bathhouse renovation and tot pool project currently underway at the municipal pool.
Approximately $22 million of the $38 million project is being used to replace obsolete facilities and increase the capacity of the sewage system in various stages, said township Manager Michael Gossert.
“It will handle complete build-out of Hampden Township,” he said of the system, which is expected to be retrofitted with full upgrades by 2012.
Commissioners will meet again at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4.
