Lower Towamensing Township is moving forward with its plan for a central sewage treatment facility.

Greg Haas of Carbon Engineering Inc., the township's engineer, gave an overview of the plan to the board of supervisors on Tuesday.Haas said the supervisors adopted the plan several years ago, and submitted it to the state Department of Environmental Protection.Since then, Haas said they have been addressing comments, and noted that a wetlands delineation along Little Gap Road, and bog turtle study, have since been performed.Haas said there will be two pumping stations, one in the village of Aquashicola near the Aquashicola Creek, and the other at the intersection of Covered Bridge Road and Lower Smith Gap Road.He said the township will own and maintain both pumping stations, as well as all of the manholes and sanitary collection and conveyance lines.Tuthill Corporation will maintain the treatment plant, Haas said.Haas said the revisions have been submitted, and the plans submitted to the township and Carbon County planning commissions.He said that in about a week or two, a public notice will be posted to explain the highlights of the plan."Next month, I will provide a formal presentation," Haas said. "The plan will be here at the township building for anybody to come in and review it and write any comments."Haas said those comments will be addressed, and the plan finalized.In October, he said supervisors would formally adopt the revised plan by resolution and submit it to DEP.Haas said DEP has 120 days to review the plan, which means it won't be until some time after the new year until the township's plan could receive approval."We are hopeful that sometime this winter, the plan will be approved," he said.After the plan is approved, Haas said accurate field surveys of the proposed service areas will be conducted, such as finished floor elevations of the homes, drainage cross pipes and other existing utilities that are in the work zone.Once the surveys are completed, a formal design of the whole project will be done, he said. That includes obtaining permits from all the applicable parties, such as DEP and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Haas said.From that point, he said the actual design and obtaining the permits will take at least a year from DEP's approval of the plan.In January 2014, supervisors approved a wastewater treatment agreement with the Tuthill Corporation to provide sewage treatment to the township.The project was put out for bid, but no bids were submitted.The board agreed to negotiate privately with Tuthill, the operator of Blue Mountain Resort.Tuthill will pay an estimated $1.485 million to construct a new plant. The cost for the township to hook up to the plant once it is constructed is $598,604.A new plant will provide wastewater treatment services to residents in the Little Gap, Walkton and Aquashicola geographic area.The Weiner Trailer Court will be hooked up to Palmerton borough's wastewater treatment plant.In September 2013, supervisors agreed to advertise to bid the project, at which time township solicitor Jim 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 2013, the Delaware River Basin Commission granted Blue Mountain permission to expand its wastewater treatment plant.