KINGSTON TWP. — Area builders, real estate agents and residents filled the Dallas Area Municipal Authority’s board meeting Aug. 10 to question proposed third-party sewer inspection and fees.

“We are opposed to this,” said Matthew Hodorowski, president of the Luzerne County Board of Realtors. “You have not done any impact studies to see how this would impact the public or (home) sales.”

Inspection of a home’s sewer lateral pipeline and connections is a proposed part of DAMA’s Corrective Action Plan meant to crack down on ground water infiltration and illegal sewer line hookups, which resulted in a series of overflow incidents that released untreated sewerage into Toby Creek.

The multiple overflows occurred from 2008 to 2017 and caused the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue a sewer hookup hold, stopping new construction in Dallas, Jackson, Kingston and Lehman townships, Dallas and Harveys Lake boroughs.

The overflow results from ground water infiltrating into sewer lines, as well as sump pumps and rain gutters connected to the sewer system.

At a Dallas Township supervisors meeting on Aug. 1, Tom Keiper, executive director of DAMA, said the third-party inspection fee could be up to $500 and applied to the home seller’s closing costs.

Shavertown realtor Ed McCabe from Four Star McCabe Realty told DAMA’s board members to go “back to the drawing board.”

“There are about 9,000 homes in the Back Mountain with (public) sewer hookups. If 300 sell in a year, it will take 28 years to solve this problem,” McCabe said.

“Quite often, it is the same 300 homes that are selling over and over,” Tracy Zarola, an agent with Lewith & Freeman Real Estate Inc. said. “So, every two years, you will collect $500, and you are not going to get to the other homes.”

Brent Snowdon, the authority’s treasurer, said the frequency the same home hits the market should be considered and addressed in the Corrective Action Plan.

Sewer inspections are one part of the Corrective Action plan, said John Oliver, chairman of the DAMA board.

The plan has not been made available to the public yet. Oliver said it is still being developed.

“Right now, you as DAMA do not even have the power to inquire into the design, the plan and the implementation,” said DAMA’s solicitor Benjamin Jones III. “This is a reaction to the very powerful impact the moratorium has on this community.

Jones said there is pending litigation about how DEP’s action has affected DAMA.

The real estate market is not the only industry affected.

Home builders and their ancillary industries are shouldering the brunt of the sewer moratorium, John Halbing, president of Summit Point Builders in Dallas, said.

The problem is not with new homes being built, Halbing said. The problem exists with older homes with leaky basements and sump pumps tied in to the sewer system.

“If an older home comes in and it needs a roof, a furnace a new water line, who pays for it?” Halbing asked. “A sewer line is just as important as all the other utilities and all the other things that are part of that house.”

John Halbing, president of Summit Point Builders in Dallas, told the Dallas Area Municipal Authority board the sewer infiltration and inflow only affects older homes, but new home construction is being restricted.
https://www.mydallaspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_DAMAflipped.jpg.optimal.jpgJohn Halbing, president of Summit Point Builders in Dallas, told the Dallas Area Municipal Authority board the sewer infiltration and inflow only affects older homes, but new home construction is being restricted. Eileen Godin | Times Leader

By Eileen Godin

egodin@timesleader.com

Reach Eileen Godin at 570-991-6387 or on Twitter @TLNews.