By Karen Blackledge
DANVILLE -- Danville borough will join a class action lawsuit challenging sewer plant requirements to reduce pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay which could result in quarterly sewer fees jumping 200 to 400 percent in Danville, Riverside and Mahoning Township.
The borough council voted this past week to appeal requirements for new limits for nitrogen and phosphorous discharged from the borough's sewage treatment plant.
Through the lawsuit, the borough will join municipalities where there are 64 other sewage treatment plants affected by the new requirements.
The borough would be required to upgrade its plant to meet the new requirements. Those upgrades are estimated at $10 million for construction and $8 million for ongoing operations and maintenance.
If the Danville plant is upgraded at a cost of $18 million, quarterly sewage fees for Danville residents could jump from $23.70 to at least $47.40 and possibly as much as $95.
In Riverside, the $60 quarterly cost could increase to $120 or more.
Mahoning Township residents could be facing quarterly payments increasing from $48 to $96 or higher.
According to the class action challenging the state Department of Environmental Protection's Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy, little public funding is being made available to pay for upgrades to sewage treatment plants, resulting in the bay strategy appearing to be a large unfunded mandate.
This places "the cost of the entire state's compliance on ratepayers of waste water treatment plants rather than upon those responsible for most of the nutrient runoff, or, alternatively, upon all the Commonwealth's residents," according to the Capital Region Council of Governments, which is initiating the suit.
Cost for participating in the class action is based on population. With Danville's plant serving more than 10,000 people, the cost will be $2,000. Mahoning Township and Riverside, which also use the plant, have agreed to join the suit, Borough Secretary Thomas Graham said. Mr. Graham said the Capital Region Council of Governments "strongly recommended" all municipalities participating in the suit to also appeal the new sewage plant permit requirements.
Councilman Bob Cope said the requirements aren't new. "Regardless of a challenge or not, we have got to make repairs to the plant. I hope by challenging this, the council doesn't forget a lot of things have to be done. We've known this for years about the bay and the repairs," he said.
Council members unanimously voted to join the suit and to appeal the permit requirements. They are President Dick Blosky, Mr. Cope, Collins Stump, Betty Ann Moyer, Dale Hollenbach and Bill Hause.
The state Department of Resources created the bay strategy to reduce total nitrogen and phosphorus reaching the bay. DEP says the majority of nutrients originate from non-point sources such as farms, according to the Capital Region COG.
Funds contributed toward the suit will be placed in an escrow account from which the COG's counsel will bill participants.
The COG had asked the council to decide on joining the suit by Feb. 8.
n E-mail comments to kblackledge@dailyitem.com.
