Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members on Wednesday approved taking over a small Fayette County sewer system, the first new acquisition the agency has finalized in more than a year.

The deal will transfer the 574 customers of the Upper Tyrone Township Sewage Authority to the county utility and the sewer system that was built in 2017 on orders from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

“They came to us feeling we could do the job better. They are not geared up to be in the sewer system,” said Westmoreland authority manager Michael Kukura.

The deal calls for no money to change hands. The authority will assume more than $9 million in debt, including a $7 million low-interest state loan used to build the system and another $2.3 million needed to pay for treatment of the sewage at a Scottdale plant owned by the Westmoreland-Fayette Municipal Sewage Authority.

Over the last decade, the county authority purchased a series of large and small sewer systems, including those in Hempfield and Jeannette. Its last purchase was a deal in 2018 to buy the system in Sewickley, which serves about 1,400 customers.

With Wednesday’s deal for the Upper Tyrone system, the authority will increase its sewer business to about 26,500 customers. It sells water to more than 121,000 customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Indiana, Armstrong and Fayette counties.

No additional employees will be added as part of the Upper Tyrone purchase. The county authority will assume ownership of the sewer lines and three pump stations that transport the sewage to the Westmoreland-Fayette treatment plant.

Kukura said the deal includes a three-year rate freeze for Upper Tyrone sewage customers.

The county agency will begin operating the system on March 1. Final closing for the transfer is expected to be completed later this year.

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