Masontown Borough Council may reconsider water plans
Masontown Borough Council may reconsider plans to repair a water storage tank after residents urged the panel to close the borough water plant and buy water from a local authority.
Most of the 25 residents who attended Tuesday’s council meeting urged officials to abandon existing plans to repair the borough’s million-gallon tank, which is required in state consent order, and to close the antiquated plant instead of continuing to spend money on it.
The tank is undergoing a robotic internal inspection, which cost $2,500, and council has awarded two contracts totaling $589,664 to build an interconnection with Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority (SPWA) to provide the borough with water while the tank is being fixed, which engineers estimated would cost $366,500.
Council has already spent $655,000 on construction and equipment to upgrade the sludge removal system, which also was required by the consent order with the Department of Environmental Protection. Engineering costs for the system were $82,990. The plant’s annual operating cost is $576,300 and it costs the borough $3.70 to produce 1,000 gallons of water, borough officials said.
SPWA manager Jack Golding said the SPWA board of directors has agreed to offer the borough a 10-year contract in which it would buy water at the bulk rate of $3.25 per 1,000 gallons and that price would increase by a total of no more than $1 over the first three years. SPWA has a solid customer base and hasn’t raised its residential rates since 2008, he added.
The borough would spend an estimated $78,000 a year to buy water from SPWA if it accepted the offer.
Golding said SPWA would cover the cost of the interconnection if the borough accepted the offer.
If the borough does not accept the offer, it would have to pay for the interconnection and buy at least 20,000 gallons a month at $3.25 per 1,000 gallons, he said.
“We’re with you either way,” Golding said.
SPWA’s plant is permitted to draw 9.2 millions gallons of water a day from the Monongahela River for treatment and plans are in place to expand the capacity to 12.1 million gallons, Golding said. An expansion to 16.1 million gallons is possible under a deal with natural gas drilling firm, he said.
Responding to a question, Golding said SPWA would give the borough a $200,000 credit spread of 10 years if council proceeds with building the interconnection, but changes its mind in the future.
Councilman Bruce Cochrane said money the borough spends on the plant could be spent on other infrastructure improvements.
The plant is old and will probably need more upgrades in the future, but the money the borough makes from selling water funds other borough operations, Council President Frank McLaughlin said.
“The borough is self-sufficient. The borough has been self-sufficient for years,”McLaughlin said.
He said the plant produces quality water at a cost of $3.70 per 1,000 gallons.
“Do you want to be self sufficient or do you want to rely on someone else,” McLaughlin said.
The overwhelming majority of the residents who attended the meeting said the old plant will continue to be a money pit. They said borough funds should be spent on replacing old water lines that regularly break, repairing roads and demolishing blighted properties.
Some said the borough’s rough roads and numerous blighted properties put the borough in a bad light and hinders residential development.
Borough engineer Bill Johnson, of Sleighter Engineering, said his firm has recommended closing the plant.
He said if the tank can’t be repaired, replacing it would cost $580,000.
The deadline in the consent order to fix the tank is in September, Johnson said.
McLaughlin said money is in place to fix the tank.
Councilwoman Kay Rendina said she didn’t believe the numbers provided by SPWA and that a study should be conducted.
“I don’t believe the figures that were given to us were the right figures,” Rendina said.
McLaughlin said he would look into the contacts council awarded to build the interconnection to see if the borough can get out of it and report at the next meeting.