The Coplay Whitehall Sewer Authority announced that a settlement between it and Lehigh County Authority has been reached at a recent meeting.

The issue started in 2010 when the authority questioned the billing it received from the Allentown Wastewater Treatment facility.

The authority, along with other municipalities, sends its sewage to the Allentown treatment center.

Each municipality has an agreement with the Allentown Sewer Authority to pay a set fee for the wastewater treatment.

The Coplay Whitehall Sewer Authority incorporates the fee into sewer charges that are passed on to the rate payers.

Under the terms of the agreement, if there is a dispute, Allentown holds the amount in question in escrow until a settlement can be reached.

LCA leased the Allentown Wastewater Treatment plant under an agreement with the City of Allentown.

"We were concerned that the LCA might not acknowledge our request," said John Schreiner, CWSA chair.

An arbitration panel handles disputes, by terms of the original agreement.

The original agreement was signed in December of 1981 and the problems with billing were noted in 2010 for the 2009 billing cycle.

Negotiations in some form have been proceeding since the original request with limited results.

In January 2012, the signatories to the agreement notified the city of their intention to proceed with arbitration to resolve the problem.

During this time, the City of Allentown was in negotiations to lease its wastewater treatment plant.

LCA was eventually awarded the leasing contract for the plant.

Signatories to the original agreement with the City of Allentown, Salisbury, Lower Macungie and South Whitehall along with the CWSA, contended that Allentown incorrectly billed them at a 1.6- percent rate instead of the 1.4652 percent in the contract. In addition, they contended that the city incorrectly billed the municipalities for engineering and support functions.

According to the terms of the contract, if there were changes needed to the agreement, the municipalities had the right to review the changes, yet the signatories were not consulted.

In mid-May, CWSA Solicitor John Stover announced that an agreement was reached and that he reviewed the resolution in detail.

"I think we have worked out a fair settlement with LCA," said Stover.

Under the terms of the agreement, CWSA will receive a one-time payment of $500,000 and agree that all issues submitted for arbitration are resolved.

The settlement reimburses the signatories for all over charges from 2009 to the present.

"I want to acknowledge the hard work that Jack [Stover] did in resolving this long standing matter," said Schreiner.

Resolving this problem allows the CWSA to move forward in its future dealings with LCA.