State College Borough Council on Monday approved raising sewer fees by about 7.2%, a move the borough’s top administrator says was necessary after two years of double-digit increases imposed by the University Area Joint Authority for sewage treatment.
The fee for customers served by the borough’s sewage collection system will increase from $11.82 to $12.67 per 1,000 gallons, with the minimum bill going from $35.46 to $38.01 based on a minimum charge for 3,000 gallons per quarter.
“This was a rate increase approved by the University Area Joint Authority and, in order to make the payments that are required by that, the borough has to pass that on to its customers,” Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said.
The increase is effective Jan. 1 and will be reflected on the first quarterly bills from the State College Borough Water Authority.
Council voted 6-0 to approve the updated fee. Council member Divine Lipscomb was absent.
State College operates its own sewage collection system and transports it to UAJA for conveyance, treatment and disposal. As such, the borough is UAJA’s only wholesale customer among approximately 14,000 served by the region’s primary wastewater treatment authority.
The UAJA board voted in December to increase the borough’s rate by 10.6% in 2024, from $66 to $73 per equivalent dwelling unit (EDU). In 2022, UAJA imposed a 17.5% increase.
“At this point we don’t have any alternative in the borough except to increase the rate,” Fountaine said.
Since the fall of 2022, the borough and UAJA have been embroiled in litigation over how State College is billed for sewage conveyance and treatment. After a long-term agreement that billed the borough based on actual meter flow expired, UAJA enacted a new billing rate for 2022 based on EDUs, a method that charges a rate for capacity instead of actual flow that the authority uses for its retail customers.
The change resulted in a spike in the borough’s quarterly billing, and State College continued paying at its rate under the old method, arguing UAJA could not unilaterally decide the new payment. After negotiations failed, UAJA filed a lawsuit in October 2022 seeking $406,088 in service charges and late fees withheld by the borough, contending its refusal to pay is “unlawful and unauthorized” under the Municipal Authorities Act.
The borough countersued, claiming not only that UAJA improperly imposed new rates for wholesale sewage treatment, but also overcharged the borough in the past by more than $6 million for services it did not use.
According to the agenda for UAJA’s Jan. 17 board meeting, State College’s unpaid fees and penalties now stands at more than $2.2 million.
In December, UAJA approved an increase of 4.6%, from $108 to $113, for most other customers, who receive collection service in addition to conveyance and treatment.
UAJA Executive Director Cory Miller attributed the increase in part to the borough’s delinquency, along with inflation and a slow-down in construction.
“If we continue with what the borough is currently paying us we’ll be short about $700,000 a year on our annual budget,” Miller said. “Worst case is we’ll be short $700,000. Can we make that up? Yeah. If we see that it’s going to be a problem I believe that we can. Routinely we do not spend all of our budget. It’s never happened in the past. We’ve always had a lot of money left over at the end of the year. I think we can endure going through this year, and even if it bleeds over into 2025, I think we will be OK.”
