Recovery Funds Used To Upgrade Wastewater Plant In Lehigh County

The Department of Environmental Protection and local officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $7 million sewer project in Slatington Borough, Lehigh County, that will prevent untreated sewage overflows into the Lehigh River and create an estimated 150 jobs.

The funding for the project came from federal stimulus funds, according to Department of Environmental Protection Northeast Regional Director Mike Bedrin.

“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is putting Americans to work, but job creation is just one of the many benefits of this program,” Bedrin said. “Across the state, in communities of all sizes, we are tackling long-standing public health and safety concerns, protecting our waterways and creating opportunities for economic development by upgrading and repairing our critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.”

The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority awarded $7 million to the Slatington Borough Authority in July that included $4.7 million in grants to accompany $2.3 million in low interest loans from the Recovery Act.

The money will be used to replace or rehabilitate nearly 14.4 miles of aging sewer pipes and will address historic pollution and public health problems caused by stormwater infiltrating and overwhelming the authority’s sewage collection and treatment system.

The project will replace 5.5 miles of antiquated clay pipe with PVC pipe and line an additional 8.9 miles of existing sewer pipe with a cured-in-place plastic liner. Manholes throughout the system will also be replaced or rehabilitated as the project progresses.

Bedrin said the investment is making the project affordable to the community, without significant increases to residential sewer rates, and will reduce the overall cost of operating the sewage treatment plant by greatly decreasing the amount of stormwater entering the sewage collection system.

The current system was installed in the 1950s and serves approximately 4,400 people.