Despite a recommendation to the contrary by county health officials, the Kilbuck Township Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to release sewer easements on Newgate Road.

Board chairman Russ Hardiman and supervisor John Fader overruled objections by supervisor Susan Merkner and advice from the chief of the Allegheny County Health Department's public drinking water and waste management divisions in voting to adopt an ordinance that will eliminate a dozen easements the township obtained in 2002 in anticipation of installing sewers along Newgate.

The Newgate sewer project has been a source of some contention in the township for a number of years. Former board chairman Tim Frew pushed to have the project completed before leaving office almost two years ago, only to be met with resistance from a number of property owners who were satisfied with their septic systems and who did not want to bear the cost of constructing a sewer system.

Hardiman and Fader said that several property owners have asked that the township release the easements, and that they favored doing so because Kilbuck has not moved forward with the project, and most likely will not in the near future.

Merkner, however, cited the tax dollars spent on engineering and legal fees to design a sewer system and obtain the Newgate easements, and argued that the township should hold onto them because it was quite likely that, at some point, Kilbuck will be forced to install sewers in the neighborhood.

Her assertion was backed up by Jeff Buthia, who heads the ACHD's public drinking water and waste management programs, and who has been a sewage enforcement officer for 35 years.

Buthia told the supervisors at their July 28 meeting that the ACHD considers septic systems to be "temporary solutions" to waste management that will fail in time. One septic system on Newgate already has failed, he said, and it is likely that others are in similar condition or will be in the future. When that happens, Buthia said, it is unlikely that property owners will be able to build new septic systems.

"Under today's standards, you would be lucky to get a sand mound," Buthia said.

At that point, he said, property owners would be required to construct sanitary sewers.

Buthia said that most property owners on Newgate refused to allow the health department to look for malfunctions in their septic systems, but that many problems are detected when a property is sold and the septic system cannot pass a dye test.

Given the likelihood that Kilbuck will at some point be ordered to construct a sewer system on Newgate, Buthia said, both the ACHD director and the department's solicitor "question if it would be a good idea to" release the easements already obtained by the township.

Buthia said that he questioned whether the septic systems on Newgate meet modern standards, but said that the health department was not going to conduct tests for groundwater contamination on the basis of one known malfunction. Should there be additional complaints in the future, however, "that could change."

Merkner said that she opposed compelling Newgate property owners to bear the cost of sewers at this time, but had concerns that someday the township may be forced to do just that.

"I don't believe that public sewers should be forced down anybody's throat," she said, adding, "I personally think it's very foolish to release the easements on Newgate...We cannot say that these are no longer necessary."

The ordinance approved in a 2-1 vote by the supervisors authorizes releasing the easements, but not until Dec. 31, 2014. Until then, the township reserves the right to install sewers within those easements should the township be ordered to do so by any state or federal authority.