WEST DECATUR – Boggs Township will allow PA Waste LLC to pay for an Act 537 study for the municipality.
The decision was a unaniamous one among the supervisors and one the residents questioned.
Act 537 was enacted in 1966 and is known as the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act. Its goal is to correct existing sewage disposal problems and prevent future problems.
Paula Norris of Boggs Township presented the supervisors with a petition containing 94 signatures of the communiites of Spring Valley, Litz Bridge, Dimeling and Ike’s Teepee.
“I think you really need to take the actual residents into consideration,” Norris said, adding that only three people she asked to sign the petition refused to do so.
The supervisors said they acted on advice from their engineer and legal consel in making the decision.
Kevin Garber, attorney with Babst, Calland, Clements & Zomnir (the same firm at which Boggs Township Solicitor Elizabeth DuPuis is employed), said that because Boggs Township’s current Act 537 plan (created in 1993) suggested that it be updated in 10 years, it was a good idea to do so now when the township had an opportunity to do so and with PA Waste offering to pay for the feasibility study.
PA Waste is the company that has applied for a landfill permit in Boggs Township.
“At some point, it is inevitable that the department (of Environmental Protection) will come to Boggs Township and say, ‘Your study is outdated. You need to do something to ammend it,'” Garber said.
He said the question on the table during Monday night’s meeting was: Do we take advantage of the money?
“That’s the issue it boils down to in my mind,” he said.
Robert Hasemeier, township engineer now with Barton and Loguidice of Liverpool, N.Y., said the DEP keeps track of Act 537 plans, and it was “only a matter of time” until the township is approached to update the plan, possibly at its own expense.
“The opportunity here is that someone came forward with a permit application,” Hasemeier said, adding that it was a permit for a landfill that was in need of a treatment facility for leachate.
The township also learned recently that PA Waste plans to place the treatment facility on the northeast corner of the property.
The agreement between the township and PA Waste is one that allows either side to end the contract with 30 days’ notice. The entire feasability study should take about six months.
Darryl Lashinsky of Boggs Township asked who would be responsible for paying for the study if the DEP denies the landfill permit.
“Are we not awakening a sleeping dog?” he asked.
Bill Dickson, supervisor, said that the DEP requested that PA Waste approach the township about completing an Act 537 plan.
“That means the dog is awake,” he said.
Hasemeier said that a law requires that an Act 537 plan be done for the entire municipality, however only about half of the township is covered under the current plan.
“I cannot advise the township supervisors to turn down essentially free money,” he said, adding that allowing the township to do so would keep it out of compliance.
When the study is finished, the township will have a report and a recommendation. If that recommendation is that a joint leachate and sewage treatment facility is feasable and cost-effective, then the township’s plan could be ammended to include a sewerage system in the greater Spring Valley area. If the study shows that on-lot systems are functioning properly, Garber said, then a comprehensive system would not be needed.