A proposed 2.5 million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant in Newtown Township faced strong opposition from citizens at a packed public meeting Wednesday night.
Residents of Newtown Township and neighboring Middletown and Lower Makefield townships voiced concerns to the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors about potential odors, environmental impacts, and questionable financial benefits of the project proposed by authority that handles wastewater for Newtown borough and township
The proposed Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority wastewater plant would be located on a 17.5-acre site off Lower Silver Lake Road and University Drive near the Newtown Bypass, just a few hundred feet away from the border with Middletown Township.
The proposal for the plant calls for treated wastewater to be discharged to the Core Creek and/or the Neshaminy Creek.
The plan has met with opposition and residents have flooded Newtown Township, Middletown Township, and Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority meetings to express their outrage.
Middletown Township, at the urging of residents from the Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant group, is working to become a party to the proposal to have a say.
While the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors does not have direct control over the wastewater authority, township solicitor David Sander explained that the supervisors would likely play a role in approving or rejecting the project through land development and zoning processes.
The board took no action on the wastewater treatment plant proposal at Wednesday evening’s meeting as no formal action has been requested yet by the authority.
Those who spoke at public comment raised worries over possible smells, pollution risks, impacts on property values, and the cost ratepayers will bear to fund construction of the $128 million plant.
Authority officials have said before the Middletown Township and Newtown Township supervisors that the plant will be safe and there are few, if any, noticeable impacts. There are several similar plants throughout the country.
Ryan Leighton, a resident of Middletown Township’s Levittown section, told the supervisors he worried the proposed plant could have negative impacts to nearby Core Creek Park.
“I feel blindsided by this,” he said of the plan, noting the authority already owns the land.
“No one wants their quality of life to be sacrificed so Newtown can save a little bit of money on sewage,” Leighton said.
“Many of us are here tonight because we’re afraid. We’re afraid because we don’t know what a sewer plant will do our quality of life, our property value, and our treasured local environment. We were here first,” said Gary Sondermeyer, a Middletown Township resident. “There’s no way a sewer plant will be put in our backyard without as substantive opposition as we can.”
Bill Everett, a resident of Swan Pointe development in Middletown Township, called the proposal for the wastewater treatment plant “terrible” and he reviewed state regulatory documents for the authority. He noted the document support the Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority continuing to use the regional Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority system, which sends wastewater to Philadelphia to be treated.
Members of the Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant with experience in the sciences and treatment plants looked at available data and plans. The group said they found many of their concerns are valid, including about the chance of odors escaping if conditions are right.
Ray Post, an engineer from Middletown Township with 39 years of experience in water treatment, calculated that the plant could add up to 7,000 pounds of phosphorus per year to Lake Luxembourg at Core Creek Park.
Credit: Tom Sofield/NewtownPANow.com
“We’ve spent a couple of decades and a couple million bucks of taxpayer money … to take out almost 2,000 pounds [of phosphorus],” Post said. “So now we’re going to add 7,000 pounds. We’re going to erase all of that effort times three.”
Dr. Gloria Post, a retired toxicologist who had local and international experience, highlighted risks from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called “forever chemicals.”
“PFAS are incredibly stable. They never break down in the environment,” Post said. “They’re detected in almost everyone’s blood, they build up in people’s bodies over time, and if exposure ends it takes many years for them to leave the body.”
Post noted that PFAS levels are “exceptionally high” in local waterways, including Neshaminy Creek, Core Creek and Lake Luxembourg. She warned that costly regulations to remove PFAS from wastewater are likely in the near future.
Jim Walsh, a Middletown Township resident and civil litigator, argued that the authority’s projections of cost savings by building a new plant were based on flawed assumptions and incomplete data.
“The fact is that de-regionalization … is contrary to all the national trends in the industry,” Walsh said, citing a 2022 report from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies that supports regionalization for economic efficiency.
Virginia Walsh, a Middletown Township resident who owns a business in Newtown Township, said she had filed a Right-To-Know request to the authority and did not hear a response. She said she wants more transparency on the project.
“That should scare everybody,” she said.
Supervisors Chairperson Elen Snyder thanked residents for their input and said the supervisors would consider the information presented as the project moves forward.
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