Jan 16, 2019 3 min read

Canonsburg-Houston Joint Authority faces the second challenge in seven months to a series of proposed sewage rate increases it plans to implement through 2021.

Along with an injunction against the proposed rates, three “tributary” municipalities of the authority, plus two local municipal authorities, are asking a Washington County judge to block the proposed ban on new tap-ins the authority announced in October.

The requests for temporary and permanent injunctions were filed Tuesday. They name North Strabane, Cecil and Chartiers townships and the Cecil and North Strabane authorities – all of which have service agreements with CHJA – as seeking that action. Those entities also accuse Canonsburg-Houston authority of breaching a contract with them through both the proposed new rates and the ban on new tap-ins.

“Based just on an analysis of CHJA’s history of revenues and expenses, it appears that the information provided by CHJA to justify the rate increases contains misstatements, misrepresentations, and unexplained entries and calculations,” attorneys Romel Nicholas and Timothy Appelbe wrote in one of the filings.

CHJA solicitor Gary Matta didn’t immediately return a message Tuesday afternoon.

Canonsburg and Houston boroughs, which appoint members of the authority board, haven’t participated in either round of litigation.

The new litigation comes just months after the authority backed off plans for a more ambitious increase the authority approved in April, when it added a $6.19 debt-service charge for each 1,000 gallons of water the authority assesses. Last year’s base rate was $5.38.

The authority was planning to incur $22 million for planned expansions to the plant it operates in Cecil earlier last year. It canceled the sale of the bonds in a notice to potential investors May 30, when the three municipalities and two local authorities brought their first request for an injunction.

Judge Michael J. Lucas subsequently granted a temporary one before the authority rescinded that increase in mid-November.

Now, the authority’s board plans to vote Jan. 24 on whether to implement yearly hikes that would increase the 1,000-gallon rate from $5.76 to $6.97 for this year. It would keep rising every year to $7.98 in 2021.

Even without any more action from the authority board, the rate for customers in the authority’s service area – which included 17,600 “equivalent dwelling units” in 2017 – is already set to keep increasing each year until it reaches $6.59 per 1,000 gallons in 2021.

The authority’s board approved those increases as part of a five-year schedule it adopted in late 2016. The additional funds are helping the authority pay down $53 million in bonds it floated for plant upgrades three years ago.

Nicholas and Appelbe also wrote that CHJA said in late October that its plant had reached capacity for sewage it could process, based on findings of engineers the authority consults.

But the attorneys said their clients dispute that claim and said the authority itself contradicted that claim in the recent wasteload management report it submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which is required each year on March 31.

That document allegedly showed “there continues to exist more than sufficient capacity at the wastewater treatment plant to process the anticipated hydraulic flow through 2022,” according to court papers.