Credit: Chris English/NewtownPANow.com
A newly formed grassroots organization is mobilizing to oppose a proposed wastewater plant in Newtown Township near the border with Middletown Township.
The Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant group has formed as residents raise potential threats to quality of life, property values, and the local environment.
Bill Everett, a resident of Swan Pointe development in Middletown Township, came before the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors earlier this month to provide an update.
“We’re gearing up to have the same kind of turnout that we had in December here at the Newtown Board of Supervisors meeting,” Everett said, citing residents who spoke out last month.
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.
According to Everett, the site is within 1.5 miles of 12,000 residents in northern Middletown and Newtown townships.
Everett pointed out the potential impact on local businesses and community sites.
“Dozens, if not hundreds of small businesses, including six daycare centers, schools with playgrounds, outdoor venues like the NAC, Newtown Brewing Company, and Brillman’s Rental Barn” could be affected, he said.
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.
The Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant group questions whether the proposed $128 million wastewater plant is needed, noting that Newtown’s wastewater has been safely treated at the Philadelphia treatment plant for the past 36 years.
“Now, the sewer authority wants their own plant back for more ‘local control’ and allegedly for cost reasons, Everett stated, citing concerns about more development.
The group is also challenging the economic viability of the project. Everett pointed out that while Newtown currently benefits from a regional system with 100,000 customers, the proposed plant would be funded solely by the authority’s customers.
“The estimated $128 million sewer plant and all future and costly environmental upgrades over the next 30 years will be paid exclusively by the 9,000 customers in Newtown,” he explained.
The organization is working to form an alliance between approximately 12 neighborhoods located within what they term the “stink zone” of the proposed site.
The new group is actively seeking volunteers and lead contacts from affected neighborhoods.
Middletown Township Board of Supervisors Chairman Mike Ksiazek commended the group’s efforts.
“Your group is probably one of the best organized and well put together community organizations on a specific issue that I’ve seen in my tenure on the board,” he said.
Ksiazek said the township is developing its own plan to address the issue.
“We are in the process working specifically with our solicitor and his firm and he has some environmental lawyers that are part of his firm,” he stated.
Engineer Terry Funk, who is consulting on the wastewater plant project for the Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority, said last month that the new plant would use advanced Aqua Nereda technology to treat up to 2.5 million gallons per day. She assured the public it would be safe.
The proposed treatment plant, which would be just off the Newtown Bypass, would potentially discharge treated water into Core Creek or Neshaminy Creek.
Officials from the authority visited a similar plant in Kansas, noting no detectable odors outside the facility and only a quiet hum that was inaudible from the site’s edge, Funk explained.
The authority has proposed keeping as much buffer space as possible around the plant, making the plant attractive, and create additional mitigation areas if needed.
The project could lead to long-term cost savings compared to staying with the current regional system run by the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, according to Funk.
The system is presently a wholesale customer of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, which has been raising rates to fund ongoing and planned infrastructure projects.
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority is starting a $60 million upgrade to the Neshaminy Interceptor that runs through Lower Bucks County, including the Newtown area, and sends wastewater to Philadelphia to be treated by the Philadelphia Water Department. The system has capacity limits for development until the upgrade is completed.
The Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant group plans to continue their outreach efforts. They are encouraging residents to get involved by contacting stopthenewtownsewerplant@gmail.com.
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