Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners has worked with Coplay-Whitehall Sewer Authority (CWSA) on several occasions regarding proposed revisions to the township’s 537 plan. A 537 plan is a formal plan to allocate public sewer service in the township and is required by the state.

At CWSA’s meeting May 18, a proposal to modify the 537 plan and bring public sewer to Summit Drive was discussed.

“The township is looking for costs to provide the sewer lines,” Vice Chairman James Carpenter said.

General Manager David Harleman explained how the costs are determined.

“There are three fees used to fund expansions. There is a front foot assessment, a tapping fee and rate adjustments,” he said.

There are restrictions on the fees.

“We can’t just go in and bill homeowners for the cost of the project,” Harleman said.

The on-lot systems at some of the homes on Summit Avenue are failing, and there is not enough room on the lots to provide an alternate private septic system. Fixed fees, tapping fees and frontage assessment fees are based on the initial fees charged to homeowners when the public system was established in 1966. The new costs are adjusted for inflation and serve as the basis for the new fees.

According to Harleman, there are some unique concerns that will need to be addressed. There are homes not on Summit Drive but near the proposed line that may want to be served by public sewer. CWSA and Whitehall Township will work on the estimated costs and present options to homeowners.

In other action, CWSA received a memorandum of understanding from Lehigh County Authority (LCA) with several recommendations. LCA is working to align costs of its services with consumption. The authority leased the Allentown wastewater treatment facility from the city. CWSA, along with several municipalities, dump sewage into the Allentown facility for treatment.

LCA is proposing a metering/monitoring program to determine flow rates from each of its municipal signatories. The cost of the project is $91,000. The CWSA share is 12 percent. The LCA proposal would look at flow rates and adjust its cost allocations based on the study.

CWSA is in a quandary over the request. Board member Paul Geissinger expressed his opinion that CWSA has updated its flow meters to the latest standards.

“Our meters are reading accurately, and we incurred the costs for the upgrades to bring these systems to the latest standards. Now we need to incur more costs because some of the other municipalities do not have accurate meters,” he said.

Attorney Jack Stover agreed with Geissinger’s assessment.

“We need to go through the program to determine any discrepancy in the allocation of costs,” he said. “Our meters are accurate. Going through this program should give us a lower allocation of costs.

“We know certain municipalities have inaccurate meters,” he said.

Board member Joseph Marx agreed with Stover’s assessment.

“We should be able to reduce our costs once we find out the true allocation of flows into the treatment plant. The reduced costs should be less than the cost of the study,” he said.

The board will review the contents of the letter in more detail. The metering proposal is only one portion of the memorandum of understanding that LCA is asking for. The board expects to discuss its options further at its next regular meeting.