Lower Towamensing Township will negotiate privately in its quest to provide sewage treatment to its residents.

No action was taken by the township's board of supervisors on Tuesday after no overtures were received for a second straight month for its wastewater treatment plant project.While a motion to open bids for the wastewater treatment plant was listed on the agenda, township solicitor Jim Nanovic said no action was necessary because no bids were received.Nanovic said after the meeting that the township will look to deal directly with Blue Mountain Ski Area, now known as Blue Mountain Resort."Something will come up (at a township meeting) within the next month or so," Nanovic said."We'd have an agreement with the ski area to treat the sewage of the township, all of which is subject to DEP (state Department of Environmental Protection) approval."This marks the second month in a row that the township received zero interest in the project. Last month, no bids were received, at which time supervisors chose to rebid the project.Nanovic said at that time, "If we still receive no bids, then we negotiate privately."The plant would provide wastewater treatment services to residents in the Little Gap, Walkton and Aquashicola geographic area, Nanovic previously said.In September, supervisors agreed to advertise to bid the project, at which time Nanovic said the township was looking for a single entity to provide sewage treatment to the township.Nanovic also said at that time that it would not be a township plant, but, rather a private plant, and that Blue Mountain Ski Area was eligible to bid on the project.In July, the Delaware River Basin Commission granted Blue Mountain permission to expand its wastewater treatment plant.At that time, the DRBC approved the application submitted by Keystone Consulting Engineers, on behalf of Tuthill Corporation, for the renewal of an existing discharge from the ski area wastewater treatment plant.That approval came as Blue Mountain began preliminary work on its new Summit Splash Water Park, where officials gathered last month for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of the new road to begin the construction project.Scheduled to open in the spring of 2015, the park is expected to create more than 200 full-time jobs.Once completed, Summit Splash will include a giant wave pool, a lazy river, and tubing slides all in a beautiful mountain setting.The approval means the ski area can now expand the facility from being able to treat and discharge .06 million gallons per day to .28 million gallons per day.The expanded plant will now consist of three communitors/bar screens, a surge tank, five aeration tanks, five clarifiers, four sludge storage tanks, two chlorine contact tanks, and two post aeration tanks.The wastewater treatment plant will continue to discharge treated effluent to the Aquashicola Creek, within the drainage area of the section of the nontidal Delaware River known as the Lower Delaware, which is classified as Special Protection Waters, in Lower Towamensing Township.The project facilities are not located in the 100-year floodplain.Waste sludge will continued to be hauled off-site by a licensed hauler for disposal at a state-approved facility.The overall cost of Blue Mountain's project is estimated to be $1,224,180.Last month, supervisors agreed to award a contract in the amount of $13,300 to Environmental Consultation Services Inc. of Pen Argyl, to conduct a wetlands/bog turtle study.The Bog Turtle Study an attempt to determine the presence of probable absence of the species, though it doesn't provide sufficient data to determine population size or structure will then be sent to DEP.