Coplay Whitehall Sewer Authority General Manager David Harleman presented the board at its Jan. 15 meeting with an appeal from big-box retailer JC Penny.

The retailer is widely reported to be in financial jeopardy and looking for ways to cut costs. The latest method appears to be borrowed from the spirits industry.

Those who consume wine know that wine aging in wine barrels loses some of its volume to evaporation. The term is commonly referred to as the angels' share. The losses amount to 30,000 gallons a year at some larger wineries.

JC Penny and many retailers have cooling towers at their large retail and supply locations. Some of the cooling water used in the tower evaporates as a normal part of the air conditioning process.

While the result of what happens to the evaporated water might be debatable, the charge on the sewer bill is not.

The JC Penny centers are billed for sewer usage based on the amount of water taken into the facility as measured by the water meter.

The company contends a portion of the water taken in is lost through evaporative cooling and never enters the sewer line. The evaporative water should not be billed as a sewer cost, the store representative asserted.

JC Penny proposes to install meters that would quantify the amount of water lost through evaporation.

Board Chairman John Schreiner was taken aback by the request.

"We don't know where this could lead," he said.

He advised Harleman that the board would consider the request.

There is also an underlying question on how the meters would be read, although electronic monitoring is a possibility, the authority is not interested in reading meters.

The board wants to look closely at decisions that would set a precedent.

Increasingly, larger companies are able to deploy technology to help them reduce costs in an effort to offset the costs of government regulations and the need to keep prices low.

The cost of the meters to monitor evaporative water loss needs to be offset by the reduced sewer bill. Such a balance is only feasible to large-scale operations.

The board noted it understands evaporative loss is not confined to retailers. Other large buildings, like hospitals, office complexes and malls might want to join the program.

In other business at the meeting, board member Joseph Marx reported on the latest efforts by CWSA to reduce clear water infiltration.

Five years ago, the EPA mandated that all sewer operations that send effluent to the Allentown Water Treatment Plant, like the CWSA, take steps to reduce the amount of clear water in the system. The logic behind the mandate is that cleaning water in a treatment plant is expensive. Water that does not need to be treated, like rainwater, should be reduced or eliminated.

"In my review of the yearly reports, rainfall increased by three-quarters of an inch, but our flows are lower," Marx said.

The EPA mandate includes an inspection of residential homes to ensure that downspouts and sump pumps are not connected to the main sewer line.

"We are over 80 percent complete on our inspections," Marx said.

The inspections depend on cooperative homeowners to schedule a time with CWSA to make the quick inspection.

"Whitehall had a blurb about the inspections in the newsletter and that generated a lot of calls," added Marx.