Delmont hikes sewage rates by $6.50 per month

Delmont Council voted to raise its portion of monthly sewage rates by $6.50 as the borough implements one state consent order while continuing to negotiate another.

Council voted 7-0 on Tuesday to institute the rate hike, which brings the borough’s portion of sewage revenue to $35 per month, per household.

“These funds are utilized for debt service, expenses relating to the current maintenance and operation of the sewage lines and facilities and to provide funds for capital expenditures related to future maintenance and operation of the sewage lines and facilities,” Councilman Stan Cheyne said in an email.

The borough is a party to two separate consent orders, one strictly between itself and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection – the particulars of which have not yet been announced publicly – as well as one that includes the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority and its client communities.

The latter agreement lays out a roughly nine-year process by which all communities must identify and address stormwater inflow and infiltration issues throughout their respective systems. Export and Murrysville both are part of that agreement.

That agreement mandates that by May 1, FTMSA must begin to conduct at least six months of flow monitoring within its system including the rainy months of March, April and May. Authority officials plan to use about 110 flow monitors to accomplish that goal, and the results will be reported to the DEP by September 2021.

Delmont council also voted in March to spend $7,000 on additional flow meters that will be installed within the borough.