To the editor:
Of the 4700 households in the township, roughly 400 do not have sewer service available; these include homes in the Touisset Point, Birchswamp Road are and Schoolhouse Road districts where the town system has never been extended. In order to exist these 400 unserved homes are required to install their own Onsite Wastewater Treatment System (OWTS).
As Rochelle Shatkin in her letter to the editor correctly states, these systems cost in the range of $25,000 to $35,000 for initial installation. Low cost loans have periodically been available, but this does not change the fact that the full cost of the Onsite System, the servicing of any debt, the upkeep and the ultimate replacement is borne solely by these unserved homeowners.
A blanket town sewer charge means that these homeowners who need to install their own OWTS are paying for sewer services twice. Firstly to install, maintain and replace their onsite system and again through their subsidy of the town system. This is patently unfair.
A user-based system has its merits in charging the heavy sewer users more, charging the lighter sewer users less and importantly incentivizing those who wish to lighten their sewer system load to do so. As a business owner with 200+ largely non-resident employees working in Warren I see very little merit in my neighbors subsidizing the sewer expense of my facility. We would be glad to pay our fair share should a use based system be introduced.
Peter King
Mr. King, a Brownell Street resident, is the owner of WaterRower.