Sewage rates for Baldwin Borough residents will almost certainly be increasing, as the firm of Lennon, Smith, Souleret Engineering, Inc., is recommending a water basin project that could cost the borough around $13 million.

The firm, whose services are employed by the borough, gave its recommendation during a special Lick Run Watershed meeting of the Baldwin Borough Council on Tuesday night. The project is needed to satisfy a consent decree from the Department of Environmental Protection, whose officials have deemed that sewage water from Whitehall Borough, Pleasant Hills Borough, South Park Township and south Baldwin—which contribute to the Lick Run waterway—has led to overflow in a Pleasant Hills Authority water treatment plant.

Whitehall, Pleasant Hills and South Park must also obey the consent decree.

Baldwin's engineers based their recommendation off of findings of a study that they recently conducted of the borough's sewage system. The proposed $13-million project—an unofficial estimate—would include a large water basin near Colewood Park and the installation of a long stretch of pipeline that would run from roughly Hollowhaven Drive to the railway that crosses Horning Road.

The basin would temporarily hold sewage water during periods of wet weather. Those periods cause an increase in sewage water flow for municipalities around Pittsburgh's South Hills area due to a number of reasons—leaky sewage pipes being infiltrated by rain, homes set up to dispense of storm water and sewage water in the same way, and others. Watch an animated video on the 3 Rivers Wet Weather home page for further explanation.

Baldwin Borough workers or contractors must complete the recommended project or make other adjustments to lessen its sewage flow in the Pleasant Hills Authority system by June 2015.

Baldwin officials will also have to decide how to pay for the project.

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