Brodhead Watershed Association

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Pocono Township Drops Sewer Plan

Pocono Record, June 6, 2008

Agrees to use Stroudsburg facility; pact enables expansion at Sanofi

 

The sewage treatment plant off Lower Main Street, Stroudsburg, on Thursday.Keith R. Stevenson/Pocono Record

 

By David Pierce

Pocono Record Writer

June 06, 2008

Three municipalities and a local environmental group are finalizing an agreement for a new regional sewage treatment plant, likely ending litigation and enabling an expansion of the Sanofi vaccine manufacturing facility.

The agreement also brings the Brodhead Creek Regional Authority — a public water company — into the sewer business. It will operate the Stroud Township-Stroudsburg plant off Lower Main Street, which will be expanded to accommodate Sanofi and other commercial and residential customers in Pocono Township.

Stroud Township supervisors and Stroudsburg Borough Council approved a memorandum of understanding during their regular meetings this week. Pocono Township supervisors are expected to follow suit during a special meeting this morning.

Pocono Township had originally planned to build a treatment plant off Route 611 near Bartonsville and pipe the treated effluent six miles away for discharge into the Brodhead Creek near the Stroud-East Stroudsburg border. Stroud, Stroudsburg and East Stroudsburg had joined the Brodhead Watershed Association, an environmental group, in challenging Pocono Township's plan.

The multi-party agreement calls for expanding the Stroudsburg-Stroud plant from 2 million gallons per day of capacity to 4.5 million gpd.

Pocono Township will take on sewage customers from the Sanofi plant, near Swiftwater, south along the Route 611 corridor. Pocono Township also will serve a few commercial customers in the Bartonsville section of Hamilton Township.

From there, the sewage would be piped along Frantz Road and portions of Wigwam and Old Mill Run, eventually move along Avenue C near the Stroud Township municipal building and go to the plant in downtown Stroudsburg for treatment. The treated effluent will be discharged into McMichael Creek, which empties into the Brodhead Creek about 1,200 feet downstream.

"There would be nobody allowed to tap in to the lines once it leaves the Pocono Township service area," says Stroud Township Supervisors Chairman Ed Cramer. "We're trying to keep it off Route 611 (in Stroud) since that's a main traffic route."

The Stroud Township Sewer Authority already serves customers along Route 611 in Stroud.

Representatives of the various parties held meetings this spring with Craig Todd, director of the Monroe County Conservation District, who helped broker the agreements.

"A lot of negotiations took place, I guess, over a month and a half, and this is the result of it," Todd said Thursday. "The district met with everybody involved to get a feel of what they were able to discuss or not discuss."

There are two main agreements. One is the memorandum signing off on the regional sewage treatment project, subject to enactment of local ordinances and a final project draft document. Another formalizes agreement between the municipalities and Sanofi Pasteur to limit use of Swiftwater Creek for future treatment.

Stroudsburg Borough Manager Barbara Quarantello says the agreements are a significant improvement over Pocono Township's original plan to build its own plant and discharge into the Brodhead.

"We feel it's the most environmentally friendly plan, having one less discharge," she said.

Jeri Jewett-Smith, president of the Brodhead Watershed Association, called the agreements a compromise that is better for the environment than the original Pocono Township plan. She said Pocono Township originally planned to discharge into the Brodhead near Stroud Township's Brodhead Park.

"The real win was to take that discharge from the Brodhead from the park that Stroud Township spent millions trying to develop," she said.

Brian Glass of Penn Future, the state environmental advocacy group whose attorneys represented the Watershed Association and the three Strouds in opposing permits for the original project, says the parties found a reasonable middle ground.

"Everyone gave up a little but got really a lot," said Glass, saying it also serves Sanofi's need to get additional sewage treatment. "This gets them online on the timeline they need."

But Sanofi officials expressed concern Thursday that the new regional plant poses new risks for the vaccine plant's expansion. Company spokesman Len Lavenda says Pocono Township will probably have to apply anew for regulatory permits, which he said could further delay expanded treatment.

Sanofi wants permitting authority to temporarily discharge additional effluent into the nearby Swiftwater Creek, pending completion of the Pocono extension to the Stroudsburg treatment plant.

Currently plans call for increasing the Stroudsburg plant capacity to 2.5 million gallons per day in 2011 and to 4.5 million gpd by 2012.

Pocono Township Supervisor Jane Cilurso said, however, that she is pleased to accept an inter-municipal agreement to shelve the Pocono Township sewage plant proposal in favor of an expanded Stroudsburg regional treatment plant. She expects her board to approve the agreement this morning.