It will cost more than $5K to tap in to North Huntingdon's sewage system

It will soon cost $125 more to tap-in to North Huntingdon’s sewage system.

The township’s municipal authority is increasing the tap-in fee from $5,375 to $5,500, effective July 1. The fee is included in a $10.4 million budget for the authority’s fiscal year, which started May 1.

Residential customers pay a flat fee of $53.80 per month, while commercial customers are billed based on water usage — $53.80 per 4,200 gallons of water usage.

The authority has about 12,650 customers.

The authority’s operating budget includes allocating about one-third of its expenditures — about $2.45 million — to buy sewage treatment services for that segment of its customer base that has their sewage treated by the Western Westmoreland Municipal Authority on Route 993 in North Huntingdon. The township authority also pays ALCOSAN, which serves Pittsburgh and other Allegheny County municipalities, about $145,140 for sewage treatment service.

The authority’s $12.1 million five-year capital improvement plan includes spending almost $2 million this fiscal year on capital improvement projects that include replacing its Kee Road pump station and force main that conveys sewage into Trafford and onto ALCOSAN lines for treatment. The pump station was built in the 1970s and is approaching the end of its useful life expectancy, the authority said.

Among other capital improvements planned is the replacement of force mains at Woodside and Stewartsville. The force mains are the pressurized pipes that use pumps or compressors in a lift station to push the sewage uphill.