BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Sanitary sewage from about 165 homes in Palmer Township will be rerouted for treatment at Bethlehem's Shimersville Road plant, according to a newly approved resolution.
“We’re getting more business,” Bethlehem Director of Water and Sewer Resources Edward Boscola told City Council on Tuesday.
Currently flowing to the Easton wastewater plant on South Delaware Drive, the sewage would flow through a to-be-constructed extension in the Bethlehem Township collection and conveyance system (owned and operated by the Bethlehem Township Municipal Authority) before heading to the city.
“Palmer Township will abandon a 50-year old pump station which is at the end of its useful life and will redirect the flow via new gravity lines through Bethlehem Township and the City for treatment."Edward Boscola, Bethlehem director of water and sewer resources
The move, to be implemented by December 2026, would not affect current user rates and would eliminate the need for the pump station now operating at Sheridan Drive, according to the resolution.
“Palmer Township will abandon a 50-year-old pump station which is at the end of its useful life and will redirect the flow via new gravity lines through Bethlehem Township and the City for treatment,” Boscola wrote in an Aug. 13 memo to council.
“Development in this area of Palmer Township and the adjacent area of Bethlehem Township over the past 50 years has made it more economical and feasible to make this change rather than rebuild the pump station.”
The work would include constructing 200 linear feet of new 8-inch main within Embur Terrace, reconstructing about 300 linear feet of 8-inch sewer main in Sheridan Drive and adding two new manholes.
As part of Act 537
The project is an update to Palmer's Act 537 plan.
Act 537, part of the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act, is a state law governing the planning and management of municipal wastewater treatment and collection systems.
A requirement of all municipalities, the plan shall “provide for the resolution of existing sewage disposal problems, provide for the future sewage disposal needs of new land development, and provide for future sewage disposal needs of the municipality,” according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“The act allows for municipalities to basically change course; these things are not etched in stone,” Boscola told the city Planning Commission in 2023.
“You can modify them depending on what’s going on in the community or what’s going on in wastewater treatment.”
The Bethlehem treatment plant serves all or part of Bethlehem and Allentown; Hanover Township, Northampton County, and Hanover Township, Lehigh County; Bethlehem, Salisbury, Lower Saucon, Palmer, Lower Nazareth and East Allen townships; and Hellertown, Fountain Hill and Freemansburg.
