A Newtown authority wants to build its own wastewater treatment plant. Residents and elected officials are pushing back

From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly’s suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

Middletown and Newtown Township residents are rallying to stop the construction of a 2.5 million-gallon-per-day water treatment plant in Bucks County.

In September 2024, the Newtown Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority proposed its own wastewater treatment plant to alleviate costs to taxpayers from mounting rate increases by the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, which currently manages wastewater treatment. To construct the plant, the authority acquired 17.5 acres on Lower Silver Lake Road, near the township’s border with Middletown Township.

Middletown and Newtown Township residents who live close to the site formed a steering committee in November 2024 to oppose the plan.

At a pivotal meeting Tuesday, March 11, the NBCJMA is expected to address a recommendation from the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors to halt the project.

Here is everything you need to know about the plan and where things stand now.

What is the project?

The joint municipal authority did not respond to a request for comment, but according to the authority’s website, the wastewater treatment plant was designed to stabilize rates for residents in the face of several rate increases from the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority.

In 2023, the water and sewer authority introduced a 16.6% rate hike, the first of three planned for the coming years. According to its website, the construction of its own wastewater treatment plant would allow the joint municipal authority to “properly plan and budget for necessary repairs and maintenance, while maintaining competitive, self-controlled rates.”

Elen Snyder, chair of the Newtown Board of Supervisors and board member of the joint municipal authority, said she is now opposed to the project after hearing from residents at recent meetings.

Snyder said part of the reasoning for building the wastewater treatment facility was to allow more construction in Newtown. Right now, she said, the water and sewer authority does not allow for more buildings to be connected to the existing sewer system because of overflow concerns and fear of overburdening the Neshaminy Interceptor, which transports sewage from Bucks County to Philadelphia.

In areas like the Business Commons part of town, Snyder said, that is impacting the township’s ability to attract new businesses and developments to stimulate economic growth.

“We can’t allow anybody to build in that part of town, because there is no access to the sanitary sewer. And you know, so financially, that’s a detriment to the Newtown borough and Newtown Township,” she said. “So we thought we were creating a way, putting on my other hat, the sewer authority, creating a way to safely make that possible for us to have a little, you know, a little more happening in Newtown, and to not have to say no to businesses that wanted to come into Newtown, because Newtown is a great place to come to.”

A spokesperson for the water and sewer authority said it has embarked on a $155 million capital improvement campaign, and noted that all municipalities who are water and sewer authority customers have to make upgrades to address inflow and infiltration to their own sewage systems to expand development capacity. To get approval for planned development projects, municipalities can submit inflow and infiltration improvements to the water and sewer authority and the Department of Environmental Protection via a process established by a 2012 agreement between the DEP, the water and sewer authority and all the municipalities that feed into the Neshaminy Interceptor.

But Snyder said she and the other Newtown Township supervisors have been swayed to abandon the project because of residents’ pushback.

“They thought there would be a smell,” she said. “And, you know, there’s no way to guarantee that there won’t be … It would bring down their home values. If you’re next to a sewage treatment plant, even though it’s a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant, you know, it’s not a pleasant thing that people associate living there.”

Who would be impacted?

Middletown Township residents who live roughly half a mile away from the proposed facility first gathered around a kitchen table in November to discuss how to block the project.

Bill Everett and Toni Keller, residents of the Swan Pointe development, banded together with others to form a steering committee under the banner “Stop the Newtown Sewer Plant.”

“The first thing … Everybody knows that sewer plants stink, right?” Everett said. “They emit an odor, right? That’s one of the primary concerns.”

Everett said he also was initially concerned about sewage contamination of Core Creek and Lake Luxembourg, which are close to the proposed sewer site.

Keller said she first thought about quality of life and the smells the facility could produce, along with its impact on her property value.

“I need to save my property value because it’s honestly like a huge chunk of my retirement fund,” she said. “So, you know, I mean, how are you going to sell your house if you have a sewer plant less than a half a mile away?”

But Everett and Keller said as they began investigating, they grew concerned with potential impacts any chemicals used to treat the water could have on their health.

Everett and Keller said they also are working with Newtown Township residents, including those who are not geographically as close to the plant but are concerned about how rates would be impacted.

Where do local elected officials stand?

At a public meeting on Feb. 12, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors publicly opposed the project, and directed the township manager to recommend the joint municipal authority stop the project. If it moves forward, Newtown Township Board of Supervisors would have the authority to halt the project if they withheld zoning approval.

“The rest of the board and myself were negative towards it when we saw the people coming out and flooding all our meetings,” Snyder said. “We never have more than five people at our meetings in the public. All of a sudden, we had rooms full of people.”

Snyder said she changed her position because of the swell of opposition.

“My job is to listen to the citizens and definitely do their will, because I’m there for the health and welfare of the people that live here. That’s my first job,” she said. “So I want to protect them with emergency services. I want to do everything to protect them. I don’t want to do anything to harm them. None of us would ever want to do anything like that. So when it was made very clear to us that generally, the public was against it, a decision had to be made, and that decision was to shut down the project.”

In January, the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors opposed the project and outlined actions against the plan if it proceeds.

Bucks County Commissioners Gene DiGirolamo and Diane Ellis-Marseglia said at a board meeting Feb. 5 that they were concerned about the project and indicated they would be willing to voice opposition to it and require more investigation into the plans. The county planning commission would also have some authority over determining the validity of the project, since it would need to approve changes to the state DEP’s Act 537, which outlines regional sewage systems and facilities.

Everett and Keller said opponents have also been in touch with local elected officials, including state Rep. Joe Hogan, state Sen. Frank Farry and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.

What are the next steps?

Snyder said the joint municipal authority’s board will respond to the township’s concerns at its monthly public meeting Tuesday.

The board member supports shutting down the project that day.

“I think we have a majority of members of the board that are willing to say those words, and our lawyer is right there, and you know, she will have the wording for us to do what we need to do to make sure that it is shut down forever, period, end of sentence,” she said.

Everett said members of the steering committee opposing the plant are planning to turn out “in force.”

“That’s the next big milestone that could really make or break this thing,” he said. “We’re cautiously optimistic that maybe they’re going to just cancel the project.”

Activists are concerned that the project will be paused rather than canceled, opening up the possibility for a renewed attempt to put it into action in the future.

“We’ll keep the pressure on if they decide to do something like that,” he said.

Keller said deciding what the authority does with the 17.5 acres originally destined for the sewer plant project is key. She would like to see it designated as an open space for the township.

“That’s ideally what we’d like to see, but I don’t know if that will happen,” she said. “So it’s not over until the land is taken care of, in my personal opinion.”

If the project is canceled, Snyder said the joint municipal authority will continue to focus on ensuring the Newtown sewer system is functioning well, and will be looking to water and sewer authority to “fulfill their promise” to improve the Neshaminy Interceptor.