A view of the then-Upper Gwynedd-Towamencin Municipal Authority sewer treatment plant as seen in 2012. (Credit: MediaNews Group file photo)
Annual charge has been raised twice since sewer sale debate began
2025 looks likely to be the sixth straight year that Towamencin talks sewer rates.
The township’s supervisors have voted to look into whether to change the way the township issues its sewer bills, moving away from a flat rate that’s been the topic of years of discussion.
“The sewer advisory committee requested the township’s sewer engineer submit a proposal to complete a cursory study of consumption versus flat rate billing for residential sewer service,” said supervisors Chairman Chuck Wilson.
A tablecloth for the “Towamencin NOPE” group welcomed visitors to the pedestrian bridge over Forty Foot Road to celebrate Towamencin’s first “Charter Day” on July 1, 2023. (Credit: Kofi Osei via Towamencin NOPE)Sewer rates were at the center of the township’s long-running sewer sale debate, which started with a study in 2020, grew into a series of public presentations and pushback from residents in 2021, then resulted in a vote by four of the five supervisors at the time to sell the system in May 2022. Sale opponents took the board to court to try to stop the sale, citing steep rate hikes projected by the proposed buyer and revenues going to shareholders instead of local infrastructure, then won a series of votes establishing a government study commission and then a new township charter in 2023 that they argued made the sale illegal, and in August 2024 buyer PA American Water pulled out of the sale agreement.
When the sewer sale debate started, residents were charged a flat rate of $375 per year that had been unchanged since 2008, and sale advocates argued that the rates would need to increase sharply in future years to cover needed infrastructure upgrades and regulatory mandates, while the sale proceeds could be used to pay down debt, lower taxes, and generate revenue; sale opponents said those rates could rise to well over $1,000 per year under a private owner to cover earnings for shareholders and/or bonuses for corporate executives, and that actual rates charged by the buyer could rise higher and faster than projected rates shown to the board and public.
As that debate raged, the supervisors approved multipole rate hikes, bringing the rate from $375 to $450 per year starting in 2022, then raising it again to $590 starting in 2024. And as the sewer sale debate continued, residents pushed for several changes to how it’s administered, asking the board to look into ways to spread the payments over multiple installments — now possible with a new billing platform adopted in summer 2024 — and ways to bill users based on how much they consume rather than the flat fee.
Slide presented to Towamencin’s board of supervisors in Feb. 2022 outlining possible future sewer rate increases under bidder NextEra, as presented to township supervisors on Feb. 23, 2022. (Screenshot of online meeting)During the supervisors meeting on Jan. 6, Wilson read the board’s first new business item of the year: accepting a proposal from sewer engineer Gilmore and Associates, at a price not to exceed $5,000, to study the topic using 2023 township sewer and North Penn Water Authority data.
“The study will consider the following: percentage of sewer expenses associated with flows versus fixed costs, comparison of sample bills for various levels of consumption, and the impact of various fixed fee service charges as a component of consumption billing,” Wilson said.
That motion passed unanimously with no further discussion from the board, but supervisor Kofi Osei — who led the effort to stop the sale — signaled that the rate debate won’t stop anytime soon.
In comments to close the meeting, Osei recounted his talks with state lawmakers opposing what he called “the sewer scam,” his efforts to mobilize residents against it, outreach to other communities who opposed similar sales, the government study commission he led that drafted a new township charter voters adopted in 2023, and literature issued by the board advocating for the sale that he asked be corrected or retracted.
“I’ve given you multiple opportunities to put this behind us, and you didn’t accept. So I’m going to make sure everyone knows that you wanted to raise our sewer rates by $700, and you wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for no reason,” he said to Wilson.
“That is unbefitting of a chair, and I’m going to make sure everyone knows, every time something similar comes up,” Osei said; Wilson replied by thanking Osei for “pontificating,” and then adjourned the meeting.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on Jan. 22 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.
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