CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Municipal Authority continues work to take over sewer lines in Clearfield Borough and Lawrence Township.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Engineer Jim Balliet, of Gwin, Dobson and Foreman, said the Department of Environmental Protection has approved the authority’s Act 537 plan special study to take over the systems in the borough and the township.
He said he met with Solicitor John Ryan on July 29 to review a draft of an asset transfer agreement. Balliet said they are working to finalize the agreement and to submit copies to the borough and township.
Balliet added that the authority will need to refinance a loan the township has, and they need to address issues with the borough’s sewer surcharge.
Balliet said the surcharge does not cover the borough’s PennVest loan, and the authority will have to use the borough’s cash-on-hand to address the shortfall, once the transfer of assets is finalized.
Balliet said the cash-on-hand will cover the shortfall for about four or five years.
Manager John Williams said the shortfall has decreased, with the addition of the Continental Carbonic facility to the borough’s sewer system, so the cash-on-hand may actually last longer.
According to previous GANT News articles, the authority began working to take over the borough and township’s sewer lines upon a recommendation by DEP.
For the past several years, both the borough and the township have been working to remove excess inflow and infiltration from their sewer lines, in response to a mandate by DEP to close sanitary sewer overflows and combined sewage overflows, which discharge raw sewage into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River during periods of heavy rains.
DEP had set deadlines for the overflows to be closed and would have imposed fines of up to $10,000 per day if sewage is discharged into the river after those dates.
The borough and the township had been working to remove any inflow and infiltration by constructing new sewer systems and by requiring residents to remove any connections for downspouts, sump pumps, French drains, and other storm water sources from the new systems. However, the projects have had mixed results and the authority is still having to open the discharges into the river.
With the deadline fast approaching, Lawrence Township Supervisors had submitted a letter to CMA, saying the township wishes to turn over its sanitary sewer system to the authority.
However, DEP said they would be willing to extend the deadline, and allow the authority to work to solve the inflow problems if both the borough and the township are willing to turn over their sanitary sewer systems to the authority.