Carbon County officials, after hesitating on their votes, approved the annual in-lieu-of-taxes payment for thousands of acres of land spanning several municipalities that are owned by the Bethlehem Water Authority.

The county commissioners approved the payment of $20,357.59 for the 2026 tax year for the property, located between Penn Forest Township and Towamensing and Lower Towamensing townships. Broken down, Carbon County receives $6,118.10; Jim Thorpe Area School District, $8,528.30; Palmerton Area School District, $5,046.86; Penn Forest Township, $355.34; Towamensing Township, $304.29; and Lower Towamensing Township, $4.70.

Commissioner Wayne Nothstein, who visibly hesitated before casting a yes vote for the payment, said that his hesitation was because those amounts for that land have not increased in decades.

“It has not changed since I’m here,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ever been changed and the amount of land that Bethlehem Water Authority has in Carbon County is huge.”

Nothstein said that on the land, there are two separate dams and reservoirs that Bethlehem uses as its water supply.

According to a Bethlehem Water Authority GIS mapping webpage, Bethlehem owns approximately 22,000 acres between Carbon and Monroe counties.

Of that, there is approximately 12,500 acres in Carbon and includes the Wild Creek Reservoir and half of the Penn Forest Reservoir.

Nothstein said that the amounts paid instead of taxes, which the authority is exempt from paying, have not increased as property values increase.

“If you look at what Lower Towamensing Township is getting, that’s $4.70 a year. What are they going to do with that? Yes, it’s only a small area, but the municipalities respond to incidents on the roads around the dam,” he said.

Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said that something has to change, however it means getting the state legislators involved.

He pointed out that earlier in the meeting, Joanie Findle, a Bear Creek Lakes residents in the Penn Forest Township area, attended to talk about protecting natural resources with regards to plans or a data center on Route 903.

“Penn Forest is out there debating each side of that and spending taxpayers’ money to preserve a natural resource, which is obviously water,” Sofranko said. “Let’s face it, Bethlehem Water Authority, who has the most to lose (in the data center water fight), doesn’t even seem to come to the table. ... So I agree with Commissioner Nothstein that this has to change.”

“(The data center project) say they use maybe 3 to 5 million gallons of water a day,” Nothstein said. “But do you realize how many gallons are taken out of those reservoirs every day by Bethlehem? It’s far greater than that.”

Commissioner Rocky Ahner added that Bethlehem uses this water to sell to its residents and he feels the compensation doesn’t reflect the true value of the property in today’s figures.

Carbon County has been receiving the same amount in payment in-lieu-of-taxes from the Bethlehem Water Authority since at least 1985, the last record that could be found that had been reported by the media.