Residents raise stink over sewer project

UNION TWP. » Several Union Township residents asked the board of supervisors to help them resolve location and cost issues of the future Geigertown sewer project.

Richard Wallace, of 1023 Geigertown Road, said his land will be condemned to make room for a pump station.

“You are supposed to protect me,” said Wallace, who has resided on the property for 30 years. “They’re going to condemn my land and take the front of my property for a pump station. It will ruin the front of my property.”

James and Shirley Sloan, of 992 Geigertown Road, asked how residents can influence the decision of the Geigertown Area Joint Sewer Authority to relocate sewer lines and pump stations.

“This board is not the place to address these issues,” Supervisor Nelson L. Ott Jr. told the res-

idents at the Aug. 21 meeting, referring Wallace and other residents to the Geigertown Area Joint Sewer Authority.

The authority has scheduled an informal town hall meeting on the issue for 7 p.m., Aug. 30, at the Geigertown Fire Company building.

Union Township residents will also be impacted by the higher-than-expected monthly bill of $125 because of higher construction costs.

Board members previously estimated that monthly bills would be in the range of $55 to $75.

“You don’t know the number of times I was at DEP (state Department of Environmental Protection),” said supervisors’ Chairman Donald E. Basile.

“I told them these people could not afford $1,500 a year, but they don’t care. You don’t know how ticked I am,” said Basile.

The board approved at its July meeting an ordinance as guarantor of its principal amount of the PennVEST loan of $1,373,485.33 and principal amount of $509,300 of the promissory note.

Grant and loan funds will cover Union Township’s portion of the $4.7 million

construction costs for the new sewer line.

That new line will serve 115 Geigertown properties in Union and Robeson townships and connect them to the Birdsboro Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Basile said the board was required to take the PennVEST offer or the DEP would fine the township $500 a day.

The DEP would also then require the township to

build a similar sewer system within five years.

DEP is requiring construction of a sewer line due to groundwater contamination from homes and businesses with failing on-lot sewer systems, which is affecting well water in that area.

“When will someone stand up to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and other government?” asked Scott Matlock, Geigertown Road,

adding, “there are 12 to 15 houses in violation in Geigertown, and hundreds have to pay.”

“We went to the state and county — we tried to not have this happen,” said Basile of DEP’s requirement, adding, “We told DEP this was not what we agreed to before.”

“If we go to a bank (for $4 million loan at two to three percent), your taxes will go up astronomically to pay for a different system.”