Newtown Authority Responds To Growing Opposition To Wastewater Plant

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — In response to growing opposition to the idea of building a wastewater treatment plant in the township, the Newtown, Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority said on Monday a decision on a proposed plant won't be made until it completes its due diligence in late 2025.

"The Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority is aware of the opposition to this plant in
the surrounding communities," said the authority in a statement. "We are listening and will take your serious concerns into consideration before making any decision.

"Our due diligence demands that we move slowly and listen to the experts and the community to fully understand the competing issues and to make the right choices," the authority said. "As a general rule, the public will have the opportunity to review land development plans considered by the local governing body prior to any final decision being rendered. We welcome public participation in this project."

In its statement, the authority said it will "continue to investigate the best technology" available for the plant itself, but added, "it still may not be good enough. After all, any such plant is very expensive to build and maintain and must last for 50 years or more if it is to be a sound investment."

The statement continues, "We take due diligence seriously. Our customers and communities demand no less. As a public authority under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we are committed to providing the resident and business ratepayers of Newtown Borough and Township with the most cost-effective and safest solutions for wastewater treatment services, mindful of the increasing needs of our community as well as the more demanding legal framework in which we operate."

The authority, which has not yet made a decision on the plant, has said owning and operating its own treatment plant and separating from Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority and the Philadelphia Water Company could save its 9,000 ratepayers in the long term from projected double digit rate increases by both agencies.

According to the authority, based on information from the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority and from the Philadelphia Water Department "significant rate hikes are likely forthcoming from both entities that would adversely impact the authority and its ratepayers."

Newtown is currently a wholesale customer of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, which transports its sewage flows via the Neshaminy Interceptor to the Philadelphia Water Company where it is treated.

"We decided that it was important to understand all our options going forward to protect our
customers from the long-term impact of rate inflation beyond our control," said the authority. "We asked our engineers to look into the feasibility of constructing our own local wastewater treatment facilities to determine if that would enable us to better control costs, better maintain the system, and provide state-of-the-art technology for the future, when more stringent standards would be mandated to protect the environment."

Toward that end, the authority said it has retained assistance from wastewater management experts, financial consultants, and have undertaken initial studies to determine whether it would be "economically and environmentally sound" to move forward with a treatment plant.

"We do not have all those studies/reports complete and it will be months before we do, likely toward the end of 2025," the authority said. "We will make those documents public once we have analyzed them."