The Moon Township Municipal Authority will close its waste water treatment plant in Crescent and expand its Flaugherty Run treatment facility as part of a $4.5 million project intended to stop sewage overflows into local waterways and the Ohio River. Authority customers can expect a “modest rate increase” because of the project, said John Riley, the authority’s general manager. The authority is seeking a 20-year, low-interest loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority to pay for the work. Riley said the authority expects contracts for the project to be awarded in October. Construction would begin in early 2004 and be finished in spring 2005. Several homes on McGovern Boulevard that do not have sewage service now will get it as a result of this project, first conceived in 1999. Riley said the authority is abandoning the 30-year-old Crescent plant near Shouse Park and doubling the capacity of its 9-year-old Flaugherty Run plant at Stoops Ferry and Flaugherty Run Road as part of an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The Crescent plant currently is overloaded, and sewage overflows occur at the pump stations in Crescent and South Heights during wet weather. The Crescent plant now serves about 1,000 customers in Crescent, 400 in Moon and 200 in South Heights, Beaver County. Riley said it was more economical to expand the Flaugherty Run plant than the Crescent plant. He said the Crescent plant would need significant expansion to stay in operation. Through the project, three existing pump stations that now send waste water to the Crescent plant will be upgraded, and all waste water from those stations will be piped to the Flaugherty Run plant, where the capacity will be doubled to 2 million gallons per day from 1 million gallons per day. Treated waste water will be piped to the Ohio River, rather than being released into the Flaugherty Run creek, Riley said. “We prefer to discharge treated waste water to a larger stream, if possible,” Riley said. Expanding the Flaugherty Run plant accounts for $1.8 million of the project’s $4.5 million cost, while work on the pump stations will cost $900,000, Riley said. Parts of the Crescent treatment plant will be demolished and some remaining structures turned over to Crescent for the township to use, Riley said. Crescent Manager Jason Dailey said township officials still are considering how they could use the abandoned treatment facility, with some ideas to date including moving public works equipment or township files there or housing the township historical society’s museum there. Dailey said the township is waiting until the authority abandons the plant to see what is left before deciding what to do with the property. Riley said most of the surveying for the project has been completed. A public meeting on the project will be conducted this summer but has not yet been scheduled. Residents with questions about the work should contact the authority at (724) 457-4400.

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