Delmont officials will advertise for a $6.50-per-month sewage rate hike to keep pace with changes required in the borough’s consent order agreement with state environmental regulators.
Council voted unanimously to advertise for the rate hike, and likely will vote on it at next month’s meeting.
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.
In furtherance of that agreement, Delmont Council also voted unanimously to approve $7,000 in additional spending for more flow meters, which are installed throughout the borough to monitor the volume of liquid moving through sewage pipes.
Council President Andrew Shissler said the additional monitors will help determine where Delmont’s and Murrysville’s systems are potentially interconnected.
“The monitors are needed in order to determine whose flows are whose and, so, we all need to install these additional monitors,” Shissler said.
If council approves the sewage rate hike at its April 14 meeting, it would go into effect beginning May 1, Councilman Stan Cheyne said.
Similar move in Export
Export officials approved an $8 surcharge for borough sewage customers at their March meeting as well.
Councilwoman Melanie Litz said the surcharge would be in place for a year, and is also being implemented in response to the DEP’s consent order requirements.
