Proposed 48,000 square-foot waste to energy facility.

There is a school of thought that the Delta-Thermo trash incinerator deal is not only a bad deal for the city, but also a bad deal for all the suburban communities. This includes Lower Macungie, Macungie and Alburtis, who may pay a little bit more to send their wastewater to the city sewage treatment plant. Over the past year the deal has generated alot of opposition within the city but not as much outside even though the deal definitely will have some effect on suburban communities. (It’s how some believe that in Allentown this past Nov. an underfunded independent challenger did alot better than expected against a well funded incumbent Pawloski who has a ton of name recognition.)

The increased cost is because of LCA’s new obligations since leasing the Allentown Water and Sewer System. Since LCA provides sewer service to these communities, it’s safe to assume rate-payers will shoulder cost increases associated with the Allentown deal.

The city agreed to pay Delta-Thermo an exorbitant premium to burn the sewage sludge in the incinerator, which was necessary to make the incinerator project financially feasible. Now they passed on the costs of sludge disposal to LCA. Sludge is a byproduct of the sewage treatment plant. The city currently pays to dispose of sludge in landfills. When the Lehigh County Authority won the lease to operate the city’s water and sewage system, it also inherited the deal to sell the sludge to the new waste to energy incinerator.

This is more expensive and the LCA will pass on this extra cost.

So just remember when you finish your business you’re also helping Allentown’s Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful. Also worth a couple minutes to Google Marcel Groen. He is a Democratic kingmaker apparently who is an investor in the incinerator and also an advisor to the Mayor’ gubernatorial campaign. You’ll find some noteworthy connections.