Lansford Borough Council on Wednesday agreed to contribute its share toward a joint sewer project to save a multimillion-dollar federal grant secured by the Coaldale-Lansford-Summit Hill Sewer Authority.

But the move was not unanimous or without debate.

All three boroughs — Lansford, Coaldale and Summit Hill — were asked to contribute $350,000 toward the project, along with the authority’s share, to come up with a $1.4 million match for the grant last year.

Summit Hill and Coaldale agreed to contribute, while Lansford was concerned about the project and coming up with such a large chunk of money.

All three boroughs met with the sewer authority last week to discuss the situation, Councilman Jack Soberick said.

The authority originally wanted to install a vortex separator to help deal with overcapacity issues during high water events, but the state wouldn’t approve the move, he said.

The authority then shifted toward a plan to address infiltration issues within the overall system to be able to use the $2.5 million federal grant, asking the boroughs to chip in the matching funds.

Infiltration is the water getting into the sewer system due to bad pipes, cracks in pipes and leakage in broken areas, Soberick said. Inflow, which is rainwater coming in, is a separate issue, he said.

This project would camera and clean the sewer lines in each borough, and line them where possible, Soberick said.

“All the towns pretty much stated that we understand the need to do this,” he told residents. “Nobody is happy about it, and we don’t have the money, a chunk out there all at one time.”

This is one small part of a larger overall project that needs to be done to bring a mid-1960s sewer plant and collection system up to current state and federal standards.

“I’m going to tell you, some of us won’t be alive when this all done,” Soberick said. “This is a massive project that may include at some point upgrading and changing the sewer plant. It’s basically redoing all of the system.

“This is like one tiny step of the plan we have to come up with, an Act 537 plan. Each town has to do that, not the authority. That’s a million dollars. This is the first step.”

The urgency comes with the grant sunsetting at the end of September. If the grant isn’t used, the money must be returned — unspent.

During the joint meeting with the sewer authority, the boroughs pushed back on coming up the funding all at once and a compromise was reached, council President George Gilbert said.

The sewer authority agreed to fund the project, and each borough would pay the authority in installments, he said. The first payment of $50,000 would be due by April 30, and another $100,000 by Sept. 30, and then payments of $100,000 each 2027 and 2028, Gilbert said.

The Act 537 plan has been on the table for at least 10 years, and the communities must deal with it, he said.

“Now, it’s coming to a head,” Gilbert said. “One thing that does disturb me about the sewer plant being built in 1964 and the attorney at the meeting said there was not one upgrade to that sewer plant since it was built. I have a hard time stomaching that.”

Resident and former councilman Robert Gaughan expressed numerous concerns, including increased sewer rates. He didn’t believe the authority could increase rates, as that should come from the borough based on paperwork he reviewed.

He also raised concerns about the project, as the borough has flow studies; and a separation project years ago cost $3 million and that only fixed two of eight zones in the borough.

Gaughan urged caution on giving the authority the funding and believed they should let the grant go unspent rather than rushing in.

The authority is concerned that if it lets the grant go, then it won’t be able to secure new grants in the future, Soberick said.

Councilman Bruce Markovich asked if the authority got the OK from the Commonwealth Financing Agency to change the scope of the grant to accommodate this project.

The borough could be committing to a project for which funding isn’t approved, he said.

Markovich also had an issue with the sewer authority waiting so long to come to the boroughs for matching funds — waiting until there was less than a year left to use the grant.

“The sewer authority knew two years ago that this vortex separator was offline,” he said. “If we would have been given two years, we could have at least tried to obtain some grants.”

Council was concerned about the state enforcement action for not moving ahead with the project, rather than showing some movement toward bringing the system up to current standards.

Markovich didn’t believe the borough was under the gun, as other council members stated, and the state Department of Environmental Protection would not follow through with enforcement.

“They tried to intimidate us. They try to scare us. We threw them out,” Markovich said of past actions.

Council, however, did agree to pay its $350,000 share toward the matching federal grant in installments through a binding resolution. The motion passed 5-2, with Markovich and Soberick voting no.

The sewer authority asked for representation for a video conference meeting with DEP this afternoon to address the grant-funded project and the sewer plant and system upgrades.

Councilmen Joe Genits and Joe Butrie said they would be available.

Gilbert noted that despite all the debate on the project and funding, plans could change following the meeting with DEP.