Sewer Authority Approves Middle Interceptor Location in LP

Lower Providence residents who turned out Thursday night to voice their opposition to the Lower Perkiomen Valley Regional Sewer Authority's (LPVRSA) plan to locate a section of a major sewer line near their homes in the vicinity of Hoy Park were deeply disappointed when the authority's board of directors voted to move forward with their plans the current location, known as Arcola 1C.

The plan was approved by the board with four of the six members voting in favor. Lower Providence's Fred Walker and Trappe's Paul Edwards voted against the plan.

Prior to the vote, many of the residents spoke and implored the board to heed their requests to relocate the proposed sewer line to the Upper Providence side of Perkiomen Creek. Several residents mentioned having garnered opinions from the Army Corps of Engineers supporting their claims that the Upper Providence site would be a better location. The board dismissed the claims, noting that the Army Corps of Engineers offered no written statements to that effect.

The proposed section, referred to as the middle interceptor, would connect two sections already completed (the lower and upper portions of the line), but the LPVRSA has experienced delays in the project, now 10 years in the making, as Lower Providence Township and some residents have mounted opposition in the last few years to the proposed location of the line on Lower Providence land. 

LPT and residents claim installing the middle interceptor on the Lower Providence side of Perkiomen Creek would threaten local wells and possibly the foundations of some homes, destroy the current beauty of Hoy Park and do untold damage to the local ecology as well as threaten potential archeological sites of some significance. Their suggested alternative is to install the line on the Upper Providence side of the creek in the trench currently housing the old sewer line installed in the 1970s. Residents claim that installing the new line in the existing trench will minimize the environmental impact and not impose on private property. 

The LPVRSA maintains that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and teams of engineers have already identified the current planned site as the optimal location and relocating the line would be reduce the efficacy and cost significantly more.

With LPVRSA approval, the current Act 537 Plan, the DEP-mandated study of the region's sewer needs that identifies the Arcola 1C site as the intended location, goes back to each of the six municipality's represented by the authority (Lower Providence, Upper Providence, Collegeville, Trappe, Skippack and Perkiomen) for public consideration and approval. According to the LPVRSA, the current plan has the support of all the municipality's involved except for Lower Providence.

For the project to move forward, all six municipality's must approve it unanimously. If not, the plan goes back to the DEP for further action.

View the LPVRSA's position and its responses to some of the residents' complaints about the project on their website.

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