Jul. 19—Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members Wednesday approved a $17.5 million deal to purchase a small sewer system that serves Scottdale, a part of East Huntingdon as well as two communities in Fayette County.
MAWC will pay $2.25 million in cash for the Westmoreland Fayette Municipal Sewage Authority and assume the remaining $12.8 million debt owed on loans used to upgrade the treatment plant in 2016. The deal also calls for Scottdale and Everson boroughs, which account for a majority of the area served by the system, to split $2.45 million in cash now in the Westmoreland Fayette utility's bank accounts.
"This has been ongoing, and it's finally coming to a close," MAWC business manager Brian Hohman said. "We will now have this entire system. It's a good acquisition for the (county) authority, and in the long run it will work out for everyone."
The Westmoreland Fayette Municipal Sewage Authority, created in 1964, has nearly 2,500 customers in Scottdale, Everson, East Huntingdon and Upper Tyrone.
East Huntingdon, Scottdale and Everson, along with the local authority's board, approved the purchase last week. Upper Tyrone officials are scheduled to vote on the deal next week, MAWC solicitor Scott Avolio said.
MAWC will have nearly 32,000 sewer customers when it assumes control of the system Aug. 1, officials said. The authority also sells water to more than 122,000 customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties.
The purchase finalizes three-year effort to consolidate sewer services in the southern Westmoreland County and northern Fayette County communities.
Upper Tyrone sold the township's sewer collection lines to MAWC in 2020 as part of a no-cash deal. The county authority assumed the township's $9 million debt under terms of the purchase.
Upper Tyrone, along with a sewer system that serves a small portion of East Huntingdon, paid to treat sewage at the Westmoreland Fayette Municipal Sewage Authority plant in Scottdale. East Huntingdon sold its sewer collection lines to MAWC in 2021 as part of a deal that saw the township retain $500,000 in cash reserves.
The new purchase comes with a commitment to freeze sewer rates for Westmoreland Fayette customers for four years, Hohman said.
The deal came over some local objections.
Tom Seaman, the former chairman of the Westmoreland Fayette authority, resigned his post in June in protest over the deal.
"I couldn't stomach them taking a good working sewage authority and flipping it to MAWC," Seaman said as he suggested the deal was undervalued. "The two boroughs are capitalizing on a greed statement. They are literally just taking the money in the bank. It's a cash grab."