Politics & Government

USC Checks In With ALCOSAN Regarding Sewer Improvements

The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority is teaming up with municipalities toward making several billion dollars' worth of upgrades by 2026.

Upper St. Clair is taking another step toward contributing to the largest public-works project in Allegheny County history.

The township is joining with neighboring municipalities to present the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority with plans for improving local sewers. At their July meeting, township commissioners acknowledged letters that are scheduled to be sent to ALCOSAN at the end of the month, detailing what are termed lead alternatives toward solving wet-weather capacity problems.

ALCOSAN is under a federal consent decree to mitigate sanitary-sewer overflows in its aging system by 2026. During public discussions in November, the authority estimated the total cost of the far-ranging project at between $3 billion and $8 billion.

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Upper St. Clair’s involvement covers three sections of sewerage, each denoted by its point of connection with the point of connection with the ALCOSAN collection system:

  • One of the sections also serves parts of Bethel Park, Bridgeville, Mt. Lebanon and Scott Township. A plan to allow more flow capacity by increasing sewer size has a preliminary capital cost estimate of $11.2 million.
  • A plan would address another section, shared with Bethel Park and Bridgeville, by increasing sewer size and providing parallel relief sewers. Estimated cost is $9.1 million.
  • A third section, which also includes Bethel Park and Peters Township, would involve upgrades to a pump station along with the sewers. Its cost is estimated at $15.6 million.

Representative from the municipalities, among the 83 in the ALCOSAN system, have been meeting regularly to discuss improvement alternatives. ALCOSAN has requested that municipalities submit draft, or preliminary, feasibility studies by July 31.

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In turn, the authority will gather information from the municipalities to compile an overall wet-weather plan for submittal to regulatory agencies in January. The consent order requires final feasibility studies – including selected alternatives, implementation and cost-sharing information – to be submitted by July 31, 2013.

Municipalities will continue to seek more cost-effective alternatives in the interim.

In Upper St. Clair, portions of four general obligation bonds are earmarked for projects related to the federal consent decree. That document represents an agreement between ALCOSAN and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Allegheny Health Department, charging the authority with achieving compliance with the federal Clean Water Act during periods of wet weather.

Upper St. Clair has its own administrative consent order with the Allegheny Health Department, providing for numerous stipulations toward compliance.

ALCOSAN has served Upper St. Clair since 1950. The township maintains approximately 66 linear miles of the public sewer system and 4,181 sanitary sewer manholes within the system.

Upper St. Clair calculates residents’ sewer fees on a multiplier basis. The total charge to is calculated by applying a multiplier of 2.19 to the ALCOSAN processing and service charges.


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