Public sewer service is not available in most communities in Northern Lehigh County. Nearly 10 years ago, several municipalities joined together to study land use plans for the area to determine if public sewer service would be needed in the future and, if so, how it would be accomplished. This information was discussed and plans adopted through a public process over the past few years.

Now that officials are beginning the process of designing and implementing the plan, some residents have shown an interest in learning more. A explanation of the project background and maps of the planned future sewer service area, which would be focused solely in the more densely populated areas of North Whitehall Township, have been developed to help the public understand how the project came to be, and what the future holds for public sewer service in this area. Click here to download!

Lehigh County Authority (LCA) and othe rproject partners have formed a steering committee to review options for expanding wastewater treatment capacity for the central Lehigh County region.

For the 15 municipalities and muncipal authorities connected to this sewer system, all wastewater is currently being treated at the City of Allentown’s Kline’s Island Treatment Plant, which has a total capacity of 40 million gallons per day. Almost all of that capacity has already been sold to existing cusotmers, or future customers who have submitted plans to connect to the sewer system. Other development plans have already been approved, but no new capacity is available for them to connect to the sewer system.

To address this issue, work began in 2007 with an engineering study, which was published in late 2009 with preliminary results. Now, LCA has teamed up with the City of Allentown and other muncipalities connected to the sewer system to review the options in more detail and gather additional feedback on the community impacts of each option.

For more information on the progress of this work, please visit www.lvwaterforum.net. Because the expansion of wastewater treatment capacity is very costly and includes a multitude of decision-makers, municipal officials, regulatory agencies, etc., it will be important for all parties to work together to investigate the options to determine the best solution. The steering committee will be meeting for the next few months to do this important work.