At the Nov. 17 meeting of East Allen Township Board of Supervisors, James Birdsall, the township’s former engineer and a consultant with Hanover Engineering, presented a proposal for public sewer service for a Toll Brothers project on Route 512.

Under the agreement, Bethlehem would provide water service to a group of new residential homes located on Route 512 near Amore Farms Greenhouse and Vineyard. Bethlehem’s water authority handles public water service in the township. It would provide service to the new residents.

The plan for sewage is what caused a concern. Under the plan, Bethlehem’s sewer authority would take wastewater and treat it at its plant. Sewage would pass from the new residences through a connection line in Hanover Township, Northampton County, and connect to the Bethlehem system.

East Allen Township has no sewer connections with Bethlehem. Public sewer in the township is handled by the Bath authority.

“Every municipality has a different way of handling these authorities,” Birdsall said.

Under the proposed agreement, East Allen Township would own and be responsible for the pump station at the housing development, the line connecting to Hanover and the Hanover line that connects to Bethlehem. The homeowners association would be responsible for connections to the residences.

Board member Mark Schwartz was adamantly opposed to the proposal.

“We had an authority here before, and we got rid of it because we could not keep up with all the changes and administrative details. With this plan, we are instituting an authority again,” he said.

Birdsall confirmed the ownership and the responsibility are there, but this was not a significant problem.

“Because of the way the Bethlehem (authority) is authorized, they cannot take complete control over the facilities,” Birdsall said.

Township Manager Deborah Seiple had less of a problem with the arrangement. According to Seiple, much of the work required to maintain the system is routine and administrative.

In addition to the responsibility for the facilities, Schwartz objected to the homeowners association responsibilities.

“We have instances where these homeowners associations fail or don’t keep the water and sewer maintained. Then the township gets the bill to get the problems fixed,” he said.

Schwartz asked if the Bethlehem authority could amend its process so the township was not responsible for the facilities or billing.

“It is going to be hard for us to set up costs and set asides for the project,” he said.

Chairman Roger Unangst asked Birdsall for more details on the costs involved. There are numbers available from Bethlehem and Hanover, but the East Allen portion was not assessed.

Birdsall was tasked with getting the numbers together as soon as possible.

The board’s next meeting is Dec. 15 and is the only meeting in December. Birdsall will try to get a detailed assessment of the costs by that meeting.

“If we need to delay it to get something we can rely on, that’s OK. We are not pushing to get this completed until we have a clear understanding of how the township is involved,” Unangst said.