New water treatment plant planned for Robinson Township
Plans to replace a 60-year-old water treatment plant in Robinson Township received a boost this week when the township Planning Commission agreed to recommend approval of a preliminary site plan application submitted by the Municipal Authority of the Township of Robinson.
The authority, which provides water and sewage services to roughly 4,900 customers, including the Findlay Township Municipal Authority, wants to replace its existing treatment plant in Groveton with a new plant that would provide up to 6 million gallons of treated water per day.
Stan Celich, vice chair of the water authority board, said the authority had considered upgrading the existing plant, which was built in 1965. But the authority opted to build a new plant because it would not have been able to provide water to its customers during an upgrade because portions of the plant would have to be taken offline.
“It wouldn’t allow us to serve the community,” Celich said. “Water (service) would have to be halted for a period of time, and that could not be managed. That took the refurbishment option out of the equation.”
Instead, the authority is moving forward with plans to build a new treatment plant at 901 Station St. The project includes a 23,630-square-foot treatment plant building, a 1,440-square-foot pump station building, a 75-foot diameter dome-covered clearwell tank and a driveway along Station street along with associated stormwater management facilities, according to a report from Remington & Varnick Engineers.
Officials are still putting together a detailed budget, but Celich said the project cost will exceed $30 million.
The existing plant originally was built to provide 1.5 million gallons of water per day, but a major upgrade in the 1980s increased that capacity to four times that amount. However, Celich said the current plant’s “functional capacity” is more like 4 million gallons per day than 6 million.
The new plant will be more efficient and able to produce what Celich called a “true 6 million gallons” of treated water per day, with 2 million gallons per day of backup treatment capacity to ensure reliability during maintenance or emergencies.
The authority began exploring the idea of building a new plant roughly seven years ago, but several roadblocks surfaced, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Authority officials committed to the project in 2024 and hired Gibson-Thomas Engineering of Latrobe to prepare the plans.
Although the site plan is complete and is scheduled to go to the township Board of Commissioners for consideration on Aug. 3, the actual treatment plant plans are not yet finished. Celich said he anticipates they will be ready for the board to consider by the end of the year.
“It’s close to fully designed,” he said. “There have been a few steps we’ve had to reconsider and look at based on some of the manufacturing components associated with it. It’s delayed us a little vs. what we had initially anticipated.
“We’re trying to get it right at this point.”
Celich said weekly or biweekly meetings have been ongoing between authority officials and the engineering firm to ensure those who work in the existing plant on a daily basis are satisfied with the new plans as they move forward.
“We’re making sure that, functionally speaking, all things are happening in a way that they need to happen in the final design for us to operate the plant efficiently,” Celich said.
Although at one point in the process the authority had hoped to break ground on the new plant sometime this year, Celich said it looks like work will begin nearly next year. He said the authority is looking at 12-month build time for the new plant.
Celich said the authority likely would have to do some moderate incremental rate increases to keep up with increased costs and to make sure it can cover the debt service on the bonds issued to build the new plant. But assuming the final cost estimates come in as expected – in the low $30 million range – Celich said he doesn’t see anything substantial in the way of rate increases.
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