Extending sewage to Crabtree would need approval from Hempfield, Salem and Unity

There’s been talk of providing sewage to the Crabtree area for about two decades.

The topic came up earlier this month when Salem supervisors discussed a study that explores how to bring public sewage to the neighborhood, which includes parts of Salem, Unity and Hempfield townships.

Most residents of the area rely on septic systems, many of which aren’t functioning properly and some that are discharging sewage into Crabtree Creek.

The project could cost about $18 million, according to the study.

“We wanted to get the information to see what this type of a project would look like,” Supervisor Kerry Jobe said.

Salem’s sewage system is largely commercial, serving the area between McDonald’s on Route 22 and the Route 22/66 intersection.

“The new Fuhrer building and Cloverleaf Court are also on that system,” Jobe said. “It meets up with Delmont at the top of the hill.”

An expansion project, however, also would require buy-in from the other members of the now-defunct Crabtree Sewage Authority, Jobe said. The authority’s original plans were to bring sewers to about 900 homes across the three towns. Its members undertook a planning study to do just that.

“Salem, Hempfield and Unity started that authority, but the federal funding to do the project never came through,” he said. “Hempfield and Salem both pulled out of the authority. Unity stayed in to kind of keep it alive, so it does exist on paper, but they haven’t had a meeting in six or seven years.”

Jobe said about $2 million in engineering work would need to be done to make the project shovel-ready.

The two preferred alternatives would run new public sewage lines along the area where Salem, Unity and Hempfield border one another, roughly between Route 819 and Latrobe-Crabtree Road. The second alternative extends farther south into the Luxor neighborhood.

Sewage from the new service area would flow to the existing Unity Township Municipal Authority plant off Auction Barn Road. The feasibility study estimated a 4- to 5-year timeline to complete the project.

“We’d probably need about $18 million in grant money to make it happen,” Jobe said. “The general feeling is that we’re either all in or we’re all not.”

The project may be on the agenda at Unity Township Municipal Authority’s next meeting, set for 3 p.m. Jan. 23 at 370 Pleasant Unity Mutual Road in Unity.