Resident Finds Fault with Newtown Sewer Authority’s Local vs Regional Rate Comparison

 

The following is an edited version of the transcript of Middletown resident Jim Walsh’s comments made before the Newtown Board of Supervisors on 22 January 2025. You can listen to all his comments by viewing the video of the meeting.

“Good evening my name is Jim Walsh a resident of Swan Point, Middletown - formerly a resident of Hampton Bridge. I lived nearly my entire life along the Middletown/Newtown border and I've loved every minute of it.

“What I'm here to talk to you about is something that's been purported to be facts unsupported by sound data and wholly insufficient and that is the cost benefits analysis that the Authority is using to convince this board, Middletown Township, citizens of Newtown Borough and Newtown Township that this is a great economic decision.,” said Mr. Walsh.

“And it's not! - it is a horrible economic decision and it could be completely disastrous for every single one of the 9,000 rate payers who incidentally are entirely or almost entirely this board's constituents.

“The engineer who was presenting in Middletown Township presented the [following] chart and I know that this board has seen [this] chart before. I don't carry this chart because it is not worth the paper [it’s] written on,” said Walsh.

Economies of Scale

“Before we get into the chart and the financials though I want to talk a little bit about what the trends are in the wastewater treatment industry.,” said Walsh “Withdrawing from a regional waste treatment system to own and operate a local Municipal wastewater treatment plant is contrary to all the national trends in the industry. [Based on National Association of Clean Water Agencies 2022 White Paper.]

“What the National Association of Clean Water Agencies [a WWTP industry group] concluded or at least supports is regionalization. The reason is quite simple: it's economic because you get you get what's it called economies of scale; i.e., spreading costs over more payers.

“Right now,” noted Mr. Walsh, “in the regional system, the maintenance responsibilities for all the treatment, all the consumables and chemicals that need to be used to treat the wastewater in Philadelphia is being borne [shared] right now by all the citizens 13 municipalities [that are] part of the current [BCWSA] system.

“A 2.5 million gallon per day local wastewater treatment plant in Newtown Township is going to likely be paying retail with no leverage and no power to negotiate those rates down. Also, these plants are run by specialists with extraordinary talent and expertise and people with extraordinary talent and expertise are not cheap. They want benefits. They want a competitive wage, pensions, etc.

“If Newtown builds its own wastewater treatment plant,” continued Walsh in his comments, “Newtown residents will have the “benefit”[his phrase] of paying for the salaries, benefits, pensions, workers compensation insurance of these specialists. All those costs and overhead are going to be paid by only 9,000 rate payers!

1.1% Versus 6.2%?

Mr. Walsh asks two very important questions regarding future rate increases. “Where does the Sewer Authority get this confidence that it can maintain a 1.1% in rate increase every year after it is commissioned to operate a plant, which is something that by the they haven't done in decades? Where's the past performance that would indicate future ability to reach this goal?

“I can't really explain and I can't deduce because we don't have a lot of information coming from the Authority,” said Walsh. “They're claiming that they're going to perform wastewater treatment for the first time in decades on a brand new plant and they're going to do it at a rate that's less than half the 2.51% rate of rate of inflation. It's made up of whole cloth!,” claimed Mr. Walsh.

“There's another side of the equation because [Theresa Funk, the Authority’s engineer] also is forecasting a 6.2% increase rate increase from Bucks County Sewer and Water,” said Walsh. “She took historical data from 2001 through 2019 and on average [that is] 6.2%. She didn't include any data past 2019 because according to her 2019 to the present there were no rate increases and that was the result of litigation.

“I'm seeing that [Ms. Funk] is cherry-picking the data points that support her conclusion,” said Walsh. “Also [she] ignores the fact that for the last 10 years - with or without 2019 - rate increases by Buck County s and Water Authority are only on average 1.2% and obviously it would be far lower if she had considered from 2000 through 2005 when there were no rate increases.”

In other words, says Mr. Walsh “That 6.2% annually number is made up from it's funny business with numbers!”

Walsh’s Version of Rate Comparison Chart

Mr. Walsh distributed copies to supervisors of his version of the rate comparison chart:

Mr. Walsh went on to estimate that there are several hundred residents within 1.7 miles of the proposed plant and it's going to cost money to pay lawyers should they all file a lawsuit complaining of the smell that may result if the plant is built. “We've got enough people with tremendous expertise [who] have really committed to not being a victim, said Mr. Walsh. “We didn't move to this nuisance. This nuisance is moving towards us. So with that, I would ask that the supervisors at every opportunity to reject all actions by the Authority in moving forward with this project.”

Posted on 28 Jan 2025, 10:43 - Category: Development