Lower Towamensing continues to inch forward on its planned sewage system project to alleviate septic issues in Aquashicola and Little Gap.

At both the September and October meetings, the supervisors met with the township’s new engineer, Doug Kopp of ARRO Consulting, to discuss the sewer line project.

Kopp said at the meeting on Tuesday that he still has not received all of the documents from the township’s former engineer, Carbon Engineering. He has been using street views from Google to estimate where the easements for the sewage line would go. He needs the computer-aided design drawings from Carbon Engineering in order to accurately do some calculations.

Kopp asked the township solicitor, James Nanovic, if he has been in contact with Carbon. Nanovic said he has spoken with their attorney and has sent a letter about it.

“We’re looking to see if they’ll turn over what they have. They haven’t yet,” Nanovic said.

Kopp said he has been reviewing the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation highway occupancy documents, and there are 409 easements. Of that number, 105 of them would be temporary construction easements. The other 304 would be a permanent easements, because the sewer line would run underground through property owned by those people. That number could increase if, after he has CAD drawings and can accurately plot a route, he can run the line through more grassy areas instead of the street.

“If you horizontally drill, you’re not touching state routes,” he said.

Kopp explained that PennDOT will require the township to restore areas where the line runs under the street by milling the entire lane and placing a new overlay wear course over it. If the line runs below grass, then restoration is simpler and less expensive because only the grass would have to be restored.

“That chips the cost down. Is it going to save you a ton of money? No. Will it help? Absolutely,” he said.

Brent Green, the chairman of the supervisors, said they anticipated having to do restoration to streets.

“I think the issue we ran into wasn’t so much the restoration of the lane. It was where we would have actual crossings of laterals going both sides, there would be sections where we would be doing the whole road,” Green said.

In the areas where the line will run under the road, Green wants to make sure all the work is done before it is restored so that the road stays nice and not chopped up again after restoration.

“I would rather have it done properly and restored to a place of where it’s drivable,” he said.

Kopp said he can’t put an official cost estimate on the road restoration until after he has the proper documents.

The supervisors discussed whether or not to have ARRO Consulting redo the CAD drawings or continue to pursue getting the drawings from Carbon Engineering. The township and Carbon Engineering disagree on how much the municipality owes them.

Nanovic suggested they give Carbon a month and pay the remaining balance in order to get the CAD drawings and any other documents from them.

Green said if the software has changed since Carbon drafted the CAD drawings, then they may not be usable anyway.

“I’d rather not pay Carbon for something we can’t use. I’d rather pay for something we can use. If reduplicating it makes more sense, let’s do that instead of keep fighting,” Green said.

Kopp said he can have a proposal to the supervisors before the next meeting in November on how much it would cost for them to reduplicate the CAD work. Green asked him to use the scale that PennDOT requires, not the one that Carbon used because PennDOT won’t accept it.

“At this point, I would rather see the project move forward,” Green said. “Delaying it to make minor tweaks with the cost of inflation, we’re going to go up 5% to 10%, so by the time we go for construction you really don’t save anything.”

During the meeting in September, it was said that the project would use about 80,000 feet of pipe, and would cost more than $13.6 million.

The supervisors also discussed at that meeting the use of grinder pumps and who would maintain them in the long run. Grinder pumps are low pressure pumps that don’t require systems to be deep in the ground. Approximately 55 properties may need grinder pumps.

Kopp said in September that a grinder pump “allows you to keep the sewer grade much shallower. And it gets rid of the pump station. That would be a savings.”

Supervisor Michael Takerer agreed and said, “It does solve a big problem and saves a lot of money over there.”

Grinder pumps can be outside of the house and they grind up refuse that comes down the drain. The cost of a pump is about $300 to $400, but the whole installation is around $6,000 with a life expectancy of 20 years.

The township is also facing having to repeat some environmental studies, such as a wetland delineation study and a bog turtle study. Green said the bog turtle study is only good for two years.

Eva Mako contributed to this story.