Murrysville, FTMSA waiting on state approval for sewer-line plan
Officials with Murrysville and the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority are waiting for state approval for a plan that would enable residents of the Pucketa Creek watershed to connect to sewer lines in nearby Washington Township.
Pucketa Creek defines part of the Murrysville-Washington border. Although the Murrysville residents who live in that area are closer to the Washington Township sewer system than the FTMSA system, they are unable to legally connect to it.
Except for about a dozen homes in the area, the cost to connect to Washington Township's system is largely prohibitive, and it would be even more expensive to connect to the FTMSA system.
A Greensburg Road couple attempting to sell their property, which includes a failing on-site septic system, attempted to gain access to Washington Township lines through the courts but ultimately sold their property as is. In an effort to avoid a repeat of that lengthy legal wrangling, officials from the FTMSA and Murrysville are working to update their 537 plan, the state-filed document that lays out a community's sewer logistics.
FTMSA engineer Jeff Bradshaw of Hatch Mott MacDonald has presented a draft map of the area included in the plan update at recent authority meetings. It shows 37 properties, 25 of which lie partially in Murrysville and partially in Washington Township.
“The question is what number of properties we're going to include in this update,” Bradshaw said.
Kevin Kaplan, FTMSA manager, said Washington Township's system touches between 10 and 12 of the properties, and those homes are close enough to the line that tying in would not be a prohibitively expensive undertaking.
According to Washington Township Supervisor Rich Gardner, the line was also built to include “dormant taps” near existing Murrysville homes.
“The idea was that those homes would eventually be tying into the line,” Gardner said.
Bradshaw said there are a dozen of the dormant taps.
Ultimately, Gardner said, consistency is the goal for customers.
“It doesn't really matter what the number (of tie-ins) is, but whatever the arrangements are, we expect and insist that it be the same for everyone,” he said. “However we get this worked out, we don't want to have to be doing this again next year. We want everyone to be treated the same.”
The updated 537 plan must be approved by the state, and according to Kaplan, it must include signatories from all of the entities it will affect, whether primarily or secondarily: FTMSA, Murrysville, Washington Township, the Municipal Authority of Washington Township, Allegheny Township and the Municipal Authority of Allegheny Township.
John Poister, spokesman for the DEP's Southwest Regional Office, said the FTMSA has submitted a concept for phasing in the 37 properties on the map.
“A second phase could be proposed as future development needs warrant,” Poister said. “DEP is waiting to see an official submission that incorporates the concept they are proposing.”
FTMSA's board of directors meets today, Thursday, at the authority office on Meadowbrook Road in Murrysville. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Patrick Varine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-871-2365 or pvarine@tribweb.com.
