The Salisbury Township Planning Commission has reviewed and recommended for approval a study of the Bethlehem Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).

Planners voted 5-0, with two absences at the Aug. 23 meeting in the municipal building, to recommend the study be approved by the township board of commissioners. Planner Jessica Klocek made the motion, seconded by Richard Hassick, to bring the motion to a vote.

Approval of the study by Salisbury is required because it is “a tributary municipality” to the WWTP, which provides service for the township’s east side. The WWTP serves all or parts of 13 municipalities.

The study is “to evaluate alternatives to upgrade the city’s WWTP to increase the organic design capacity,” Bethlehem Director of Water and Sewer Resources Edward J. Boscola said in a June 21 letter to Salisbury Township Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich.

“An increase in organic design capacity at the WWTP is necessary due to the continued increases in the organic loading concentration,” Boscola said.

The Boscola letter states the organic design capacity is to increase from 39,365 pounds per day to 50,000 pounds per day of Biochemical Oxygen Demand.

“The selected alternative for this Act 537 Special Study is the installation of a Chemically Enhanced Primary Treatment (CEPT) system at the WWTP,” Boscola’s letter states. “The CEPT alternative provides for a cost-effective and phased solution to address the increasing trend in organic concentration,” the letter continues.

Act 537 is the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act. According to the Department of Environmental Protection website, “The purpose of the DEP sewage facilities program is to implement the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act [Act 537] in order to help address existing sewage disposal needs, and to help prevent future problems through the proper planning, permitting and design of all types of sewage facilities.”

The letter states the study does not address the hydraulic design capacity of the WWTP, which will remain at 20 Million Gallons Daily (MGD) with an administrative limit of 15.5 MGD in Bethlehem’s approved 2012 Act 537 Plan.

Sewage allocations for the tributary municipalities are not addressed in the study. Nor does the study address the sewage collection system or change the sewage service area in the municipalities.

”The city [Bethlehem] anticipates no additional capital debut service to charge to the township related to implementation of this special study,” Boscola’s letter states.

Lehigh Valley Planning Commission reviewed the Bethlehem WWTP study at its July 27 meeting.

A July 28 letter from LVPC Senior Environmental Planner Susan L. Rockwell to Boscola states that at the Bethlehem WWTP, “the installation of a chemically-enhanced primary treatment system ... is in the process of being implemented to address recurring ammonia exceedances at the plant, but will additionally improve the performance of primary settling and primary effluent quality during wet weather events, allowing the plant to accept higher organic loading.

“Construction is underway with substantial completion expected by January 2024,” Rockwell’s LVPC letter states.

“The proposal to increase the organic design capacity would ‘improve the utility and mobility infrastructure of the region’ and allow for continued wastewater treatment service to contributing municipalities. The improvement of effluent quality will help ‘protect the quality and quantity of surface water and groundwater,’” Rockwell’s LVPC letter states.

The Bethlehem Planning Commission heard a report from Boscola about the study at its Aug. 17 meeting.

After the municipalities adopt the study, it will be submitted to the DEP for review and approval.

Salisbury Township municipal meetings in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave., include: 7 p.m. Sept. 13: zoning hearing board; 7 p.m. Sept. 14: board of commissioners; 7 p.m. Sept. 27: planning commission and 7 p.m. Sept. 28: board of commissioners.