The township sewer fee in 2010 was proposed to increase by an average of $87.24 per household. After a vote Dec. 9 by the Springfield Township Board of Commissioners, it will only go up half that amount.
In a 6-1 vote, with board President Jeff Harbison dissenting, the board decided to buffer the increase by footing half of the bill with the township’s sewer reserve fund, just as members chose to do last year when Philadelphia raised the water treatment fees charged to Springfield Township.
The sewer reserve fund holds money put aside for major problems like pipe collapse or failure, and Harbison said he would be “uncomfortable” taking more money from the fund.
“My fear is that it’s over time. Once one starts to go, another starts to go,” he said.
The oldest pipes in Springfield Township are about 60 year old, according to officials.
So far, there have not been any “true emergencies,” Don Berger, township manager, said.
Commissioner Bob Gillies, who made the motion, said with rising unemployment, the $40 each household would save “wouldn’t hurt” the township.
Commissioner Glenn Schaum said the township has been thrifty in the past and has no debt.
The sanitary sewer fund has about $4.6 million available for normal capital expenditures such as manhole rehabilitation and meters for water flow studies, Assistant Township Manager Mike Taylor said in an interview Dec. 11.
The purpose of the reserve is to cover the cost of catastrophes. Repairs to the sewer system are expensive because many of the pipes are inaccessible, as they run along streams and creeks not in the regular roadways, he said.
This increase is due to a hike last year in Philadelphia’s sanitary sewer conveyance and treatment fees charged to Springfield.
The city increased the fees to meet federal standards and realign costs to treat waste like biochemical oxygen demand and suspended solids, wastes that shouldn’t be in the water and range from human- to factory-produced, to dirt that can enter water supply through cracks in the pipes.
The commissioners chose to temper the cost of the higher sewer fee by more than half last year by dipping into the sanitary sewer reserve fund.
Springfield’s engineer is examining where most of this waste is coming from, with the intention of saving money for residents down the road so the cost of removal does not need to be spread throughout the township, Taylor said.
The engineer is also looking to identify whether major manufacturers in the area have a high biochemical oxygen demand load, which raises treatment costs, he said.
“We need to get to the root of the problem before we decide how it’s going to be funded,” Schaum said.
The real estate tax and refuse fee are unchanged in the proposed 2010 budget, which the board is scheduled to adopt Dec. 16.
