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Lower Pottsgrove Township Authority reviews $13.6 million Porter Road wastewater treatment design and funding plan
Summary
At its May 11 meeting the Lower Pottsgrove Township Authority heard an engineering update on a redesigned Porter Road wastewater treatment plant that shifts from an SBR to an extended aeration process, with a current construction estimate of about $13.6 million (projected to $15 million) and a multi-year permitting and construction timeline. The Authority asked for ROI and payback analyses before forwarding a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners.
Engineer Fred Ebert presented a revised conceptual design for a wastewater treatment plant at Porter Road to the Lower Pottsgrove Township Authority on May 11, 2026. Ebert said the plan replaces a previously considered sequential batch reactor (SBR) with an extended aeration treatment process to meet Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) discharge criteria and because “most treatment plants along the Schuylkill River use this process,” according to his presentation.
Ebert told the Authority the current construction estimate, including a five percent contingency, is about $13.6 million and he expects the figure could reach roughly $15 million by the time construction starts. He presented a financial analysis that estimates annual operating expenses at about $2.1 million, which he calculated as roughly $364 per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) based on 5,706 EDUs currently in the system.
Ebert discussed funding options, including a PennVEST loan, and said a developer has offered $50,000–$75,000 to help prepare the required Act 537 Sewage Facilities Plan amendment. He explained that the Act 537 approval step takes about a year, the NPDES permitting process would take about six to nine months, and that the entire permitting and construction timeline through completion is expected to span about 3.5 years. He also said stormwater measures are budgeted at about $250,000 and that post-construction impervious coverage is expected to be less than pre-construction.
Authority members probed capacity assumptions and financial risks. Joe McGeehan asked whether the plant’s capacity exceeds likely Township growth; Ebert said the design includes capacity for 600,000 gallons of potential growth but that he expects roughly 200,000 gallons to be used near term, leaving additional capacity for the future without significantly raising costs. Board member Sean Pence walked through cost totals to confirm assumptions. McGeehan asked for a payback and return-on-investment (ROI) analysis before the Authority forwards the project to the Board of Commissioners; Ebert agreed to provide ROI, payback, and inflation assumptions.
Ebert also reported that DEP suggested re-rating the Porter Road Pump Station; staff will build a hydraulic model and perform testing in the next two weeks to verify model results before submitting calculations to DEP. Ebert said the project team will file NPDES permits and other required applications concurrently when appropriate.
What happens next: If the Authority decides to proceed, Ebert said the next formal step would be recommending the Act 537 Plan amendment to the Board of Commissioners and providing an executive summary of the proposed project. The Authority requested additional financial detail (ROI and payback assumptions) before making that formal recommendation.
