Lower Towamensing Township's plan for a central sewage treatment facility will be presented to the public next week.

The presentation will take place at the township's board of supervisors meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.The township has prepared an official sewage facilities Act 537 plan update revision, which will be submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Water Quality Management, for approval.The nature, scope and location of the plan is the entire township, with concentration on the Aquashicola, Walkton, Little Gap, Weiner Mobile Estates, and Red Hill Road portions of the township where malfunctions of existing on-lot sewage systems are present.The plan's major recommendation, or alternative No. 1, proposes for the Aquashicola/Walkton/Little Gap sections of the township to be provided with gravity lines, manholes, and two pump stations with their associated force mains.The system will connect to the existing Blue Mountain Ski Area wastewater treatment plant, which will be upgraded to account for the additional sewage flow.The plant will continue to be owned and operated by the Tuthill Corporation.The alternative also provides for the Weiner Mobile Estates and homes along Red Hill Road to connect to the Palmerton Borough wastewater collection system and be treated at the borough's plant.Various other alternatives are considered in the plan, such as the conveyance of sewage from Aquashicola, Walkton and Little Gap to the Palmerton wastewater treatment plant, construction of small flow sewage treatment facilities throughout the areas of need, and construction of community land disposal facilities.The capital cost of implementing alternative No. 1 is estimated to be about $12,440,396.Tapping fees of $4,000 per equivalent dwelling unit will be charged. Annual user costs are anticipated to be $942 per EDU. These fees are contingent upon receiving funding from the USDA Rural Development Agency.A copy of the plan is available for inspection, and written comments will be accepted at the office of the township secretary at 595 Hahn's Dairy Road, Palmerton, PA 18071.The plan will be adopted at the township's regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 at the township municipal building.Greg Haas, of Carbon Engineering Inc., the township's engineer, said that after the township adopts the revised plan by resolution and submits it to DEP, the organization has 120 days to review the plan.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. 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.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.