Sewage Rate Increase? Special Colewood Park Project Meeting July 9

A project to install a Colewood Park water basin, which would temporarily hold sewage water during periods of wet weather, could noticeably increase sewage rates for Baldwin Borough residents.

By how much? That's yet to be determined, but the Baldwin Council is holding a public hearing at the Leland Center on Tuesday, July 9, at 6:30 p.m. to talk about it.

A July 2012 estimate put the figure at $15 per month.

"We are using Leland because the sanitary repairs near Colewood are in the southern portion of the borough and Council felt residents impacted by this project would be more likely to attend at this location," borough Manager John Barrett said.

The Colewood project is needed to satisfy a consent decree from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), whose officials have deemed that sewage water from south Baldwin and the nearby municipalities that also contribute to the Lick Run waterway has led to overflow in a Pleasant Hills Authority water treatment plant.

Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, a sewage service provider of Baldwin's, will also need to make adjustments to its sewage handling in order to satisfy the DEP, and the cost for all of these adjustments—unless another way is found—will be handed over to citizens/customers.

The 6:30 meeting will precede a 7:30 council meeting that same night (also at Leland) in which the agenda will be set for the council's July 16 regular meeting at the borough municipal complex along Churchview Avenue.

The borough's agenda and regular meetings are both typically held at the Churchview location in north Baldwin, but an exception is being made for the July 9 meeting.