Borough Authority Has Say Over Sewer Sale in Upper

The Pottstown Borough Authority may have decided Tuesday night it has no interest in being among the bidders for the sewer conveyance system Upper Pottsgrove Township is considering selling, but that doesn't mean they won't have a say in the matter.

During discussion at Tuesday's authority meeting, board members briefly considered the idea of being bidders for the Upper Pottsgrove system, but quickly dismissed it.

"The authority could certainly qualify to buy it, but I doubt you would be top bidder," said Josh Fox with the authority's engineering firm, Herbert Rowland and Grubic.

Because the township is looking to the sale of the system to pay down debt; make its pension system whole and possible use the funding for new township facilities, it would be looking for the top bidder.

The township has issued a "request for qualifications," which is the first step in determining what entities, both public and private, are qualified to bid for the system. The decision to sell the system has not been made and will depend on the price.

Upper Pottsgrove has hired a public financing specialist called PFM, which is working on a share of the sale price, to undertake the investigation and solicit and qualify the bids.

Beyond the unlikelihood of the authority not likely being the high bidder, "I don't think we could handle it," said board member Tom Carroll, referring to all the responsibilities the authority already has, running both the water and sewer treatment plants.

But unlike other municipal systems that have lately been getting bought up by private companies, due largely to a legal change in how system assets are evaluated, Upper Pottsgrove does not control the treatment plant where its sewage is treated.

That honor belongs to the Pottstown Borough Authority.

There is a "sewer services agreement" under which the authority agrees to accept and treat the township's outflow and the authority would have to approve the re-assignment of that agreement to a new owner, or the new owner could negotiate a new agreement with the authority, explained Authority Solicitor Vincent Pompo.

Additionally, moving that agreement from a government body to a for-profit company would also require approval by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said Pompo.

"This is going to be a sticky wickett," said authority member David Renn.

Finance Director Janice Lee also pointed out that currently, the borough does Upper Pottsgrove's billing for water and sewer. If the sewer system has a new owner, it would complicate the usual remedy for non-payment, shutting off the water.

"I see this as a major issue," said Lee, who suggested the new owners would have to take on the task of billing as well.

She also noted that Upper Pottsgrove "owes the authority $400,000" for a sewer upgrade called a "siphon," which has not yet been paid and could cut into their profits from selling the system.

None of those considerations were raised Monday night, when Upper Pottsgrove Commissioners Chairman Trace Slinkerd told the board that things were moving ahead smoothly with the investigation of selling the system.

He said the Upper Pottsgrove has set a target for September or October to review bids on the sewer system.

Stormy Discussion

In the wake of a severe thunderstorm and flash flood that caused more than $1 million just to property owned by the borough, Borough Authority member Tom Carroll again raised the question of charging a fee for managing stormwater.

Pottstown's stormwater system was overwhelmed by
Thursday's storm. Here, water shooting up out of the system,
not in, forced this manhole cover off its fitting
at the intersection of East and North Hanover streets.

Authority Manager Justin Keller said the Manatawny Creek watershed was hit with about six inches
of rain in a single hour.

And although the Schuylkill River rose 13.2 feet from the storm, the water and sewer treatment plants, which are both located along the river, don't start having problems until the river reaches 13.6 feet, said Utilities Director Brent Wagner.

During the July 11 storm, this collapse arch behind a home on 

Walnut Street swelled and overflowed with stormwater.

Nevertheless, said board member Tom Carroll said the borough should again look at the idea of charging a fee to manage stormwater. The more impervious surface a property has, the more stormwater it sends into the system, the higher the fee is the theory.

In 2015, the authority paid $56,000 for a "Stormwater Master Plan," that would inventory all the borough's stormwater intakes, arches, outlets and storm sewer pipes.

One model for funding these anti-pollution and stormwater control measures is to charge property owners by the amount of stormwater that leaves their property.

That is one reason why many municipalities have adopted new requirements for containing and infiltrating stormwater back into the ground before it hits the streets and streams.

Erosion from the storm had made the sinkhole even bigger,

as seen in this July 12 photo.

Pottstown’s ordinance was adopted last July .

The owners of large parking lots, which shunt vast sheets of water into storm sewers, may soon find they are being charged for having the borough authority manage and treat it that water where currently they pay no more than the universal property tax rate.

“I’m not anxious to be the first town in the area to start charging for stormwater,” Authority Board
Chairman Jeff Chomnuk said in 2015, worrying it could discourage commercial investment.

But there is another worry -- a lawsuit.

When West Chester Borough adopted just such an ordinance, West Chester University refused to pay, saying the stormwater fee was a tax and, as part of the state higher education system, it was tax exempt.

The storm also opened up a new sinkhole in an alley off Airy Street 

between Spruce and North Hanover streets.

And when West Chester sued, the college sought to have it thrown out of court on that basis. But that argument failed and on Monday, a court ruled the suit could go forward, Pompo told the authority members.

Currently, Pottstown is waiting to see how that lawsuit is resolved, said Authority Manager Justin Keller. "I don't want to spin my wheels and spend staff time putting something together that the court ultimately throws out," he said.

Carroll argued the time spent waiting for the lawsuit to be resolved could be spent preparing for the eventuality that the new fee could be imposed, but Keller said that work is already done.

Making Your Own Energy

Another interesting item to come out of last night's meeting is a plan to make the Pottstown sewer treatment plant a "net zero" facility in terms of energy.

Photo ruefully stolen from The Pottstown Post (Sorry Joe.)

In other words, the authority voted to spend $34,000 on a feasibility study to see if changes could be made to the operation of the sewer plant that would allow it to use no more electricity than it can produce on site.

The study will look at the cost/benefit of changing over the system operations from aerobic digesters
to anaerobic:

• This would reduce pollutants in the effluent the plant discharges into the Schuylkill River; 
• which could reduce electric costs by no longer requiring blowers; 
• provide more methane to allow the plant to produce its own electricity and further reduce costs; 
• and use exhaust from idling septic trucks to provide heat to the digester process to reduce costs even more.

Josh Fox, who is with the borough's engineering firm of Herbert Rowland and Grubic, said another advantage is it would make what is now undesirable at the plant, things like grease and oil, more desirable because of the amount of BTUs it contains.

"All the worst stuff has a higher energy value," he said.

It could even make use of food waste.

Consider the case of spoiled milk, he said. Most grocery stores have it hauled away to a landfill, but "spoiled milk has a high BTU value and is full of the stuff the bugs (which digest the waste at the plant) love to eat," he said.

"It's pretty exciting," said Fox. "There are a lot of potential benefits."

And on that appetizing note, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Not So Fast Upper Pottsgrove