The Newtown, Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority (Authority) is actively pursuing construction of our own wastewater treatment facility.

The Authority recently acquired a 17.5-acre parcel between the Newtown Bypass and Lower Silver Lake Road as a future site for a brand-new wastewater treatment plant.

The plant, once constructed, would be virtually invisible from the bypass.

We will keep our customers and community apprised of updates as progress continues. Rates will increase in January from $82 to $120.54 per quarter for the 10,000 gallon minimum, which equates to a less than 43 cents per day increase. Frequently Asked Questions posted on our website may help to address any concerns our customers have. Those can be accessed at Wastewater Treatment Plant Project FAQ.

The impetus for undertaking construction and operation of our own wastewater treatment plant centers around a failed attempt by the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority (BCWSA) to sell its sewer assets to Aqua Pennsylvania, a private company, for a whopping $1.1 billion. Neighboring public authorities that sold their systems to for-profit companies saw skyrocketing water and sewer rate increases. As a wholesale customer of BCWSA, future spiraling rates would have had a trickle down effect on our
customers — you.

In 2023, BCWSA instituted the first of three planned rate increases for its wholesale customers, which amounted to a 16.6 percent rate hike, an increase, that we, unfortunately, had to pass on to our customers along with a nominal 3.4 percent increase to cover the normal growth in Authority operating costs in an inflationary environment. It is not known how much BCWSA will charge for subsequent rate increases as these decisions are often made with little, if any, input from our Authority or board.

While we are grateful that the BCWSA sale did not move forward, in its absence BCWSA is left with a laundry list of expensive upgrades and maintenance that were long overdue. As a wholesale customer of BCWSA, our Authority must contribute shared costs of multi-million-dollar infrastructure upgrades and maintenance to the Neshaminy Interceptor system.

Our Authority board realized that unless we took steps to become independent of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, we would always be subject to their decisions and rate hikes, causing our residents to be perpetual subjects to higher expenses that we could not control. We decided to investigate the possibility of taking full dominion over our future sewer needs by building our own plant.

Our Authority will work to ensure that the advanced technology we envision for the plant addresses any potential concerns from residents.

We will continue our due diligence with all the necessary parties as this project moves to fruition.

So far, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has indicated it supports the concept.

Our elected leaders in Newtown Township and Newtown Borough are interested in protecting our residents and saving money, and our engineers tell us that the project is feasible.

As this evolves, we will keep the community informed of our progress.