Coplay Whitehall Sewer Authority board member Joseph Marx highlighted two events surrounding the proposed lease of the Allentown wastewater treatment plant at the Feb. 21 meeting.

While CWSA is responsible for the in-ground plant and maintenance of sewer lines in Coplay and Whitehall, all sewage flows to Allentown for treatment. Over the past few months, CWSA has expressed concern about how the proposed lease of the treatment plant will affect customers in its service area.

Marx suggested that board members review a 90-minute presentation made by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski. According to Marx, the presentation renewed many of the concerns that CWSA has about the lease.

Arrow Engineering, a firm paid by the Lehigh County Authority (LCA) to examine the 537 sewer plan, gave municipalities that are part of the Allentown wastewater coalition a laundry list of questions.

"They were on a fishing expedition, trying to find something," said Marx.

WRA Associates is working with Arrow Engineering and the city to compile statistics to be used by the eventual concessionaire, whether it is the city or an outside contractor. LCA is one of the potential bidders for the Allentown plant, but LCA needs to receive the approval from county commissioners to proceed with a bid. At the moment, approval is in question.

CWSA reiterated its concern that Allentown has taken little or no action to comply with an EPA order to reduce groundwater infiltration into its portion of the wastewater treatment system. Groundwater generally does not need to be treated, and unintended infiltration increases the amount of water presented to the plant for treatment.

Marx said the questions asked by Arrow were well beyond the scope of analyzing operational issues.

"What I think is that Allentown is spending the money they should be spending on reducing water infiltration and sending it to Arrow to do a regional study," he said.

Marx believes that the cost of meeting Allentown's EPA standards will be borne by all the rate payers that use the system, not just Allentown residents.

"We [CWSA] have already spent significant amounts of money to reduce infiltration and our customers are paying the bill. They don't need to pay for Allentown's improvements too," he said.

On March 1, Allentown released a new proposed agreement.

"This new agreement changes the whole picture," said Marx during a telephone interview with The Press. "Our agreement with Allentown was that they were going to redline any changes and keep the process transparent."

Marx further said that Allentown never discussed any aspect of the new proposal or gave the signatories any option to participate in drafting a new agreement.

"We have been working cooperatively with the other municipalities that are signatories to the agreement with Allentown," Marx said.

No one at CWSA has seen the actual agreement, but Marx indicated that it would need to be reviewed by CWSA attorney Jack Stover before the board issues any comments.

"In my reading, it seems like there are little or no restrictions for the concessionaire to raise rates. The prior restrictions written into the agreement were relaxed," said Marx.

According to Marx, several grass roots groups are reviewing the latest proposed lease agreement.

"We are relying on them to do some of the vetting of this agreement," he said.