By Stephana Ocneanu, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tucked away into the rolling farmland of Butler County is the Connoquenessing Township Municipal Building, where dozens of residents turned out for the May supervisors’ meeting.
In a small room with no air conditioning, neighbors were pressed against one another, shoulder-to-shoulder, many waiting for an opportunity to speak out against a sewage plan that would cost them $252 a month plus thousands to tap into a public system.
“I pray Jesus takes the wheel because this train is going off the tracks,” lifelong resident Jim Marburger, 63, said during the meeting. “You’re letting these outside people come in here and change our beautiful community into something that it’s not. If they want this, let them go back to the damn city.”
As a result of a consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the township has until June 21 to submit a sewage plan. Local officials must decide by then whether to move forward with a $53 million plan that many say would be devastating to residents.
Township supervisors said they’re waiting on approval for a 60-day extension from the DEP, which would allow them to draft up more affordable options from the local Pennsylvania American Water Co.
Until then, the current plan being considered was prepared by the Cranberry engineering firm Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, or HRG. It would include four phases of construction of a system that would send wastewater to the Saxonburg Area Authority for treatment.
By 2033, all customers would be required to tap into the system — costing them thousands of dollars to do so, unless the township received help through grants or loans that could be passed along to residents.
If approved, the HRG plan could also leave Connoquenessing residents paying a $252 monthly sewage fee, which is up to five times more than what people pay in nearby areas. For example, in the Butler area, where PAW has taken over, customers pay $45.50 a month. In Saxonburg the rate is $79 a month, and in Pittsburgh it’s $100.
“It makes no sense,” said resident Dianna Edwards. “You would never put your own personal family in that kind of financial strain. You would never put your own business in that kind of personal strain. Why in the world would you do it to everybody else?”
Mr. Marburger owns more than nine acres of land in Renfrew. His mother, Bonnie, 81, lives nearby on land that was passed down by her father. Like many older residents of the township, she lives on a fixed income.
“She gets $900 a month. How is she going to afford a $300 sewage bill?” Mr. Marburger said. “This would take everything from her and then some.”
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