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The Lycoming County Water and Sewer Authority will be able to handle future development in the eastern part of the county for years to come, thanks to a real estate deal that netted the authority an additional 80 acres of land.

The authority bought the land, which is adjacent its treatment facility on Old Cement Road in Fairfield Township, from the Hurwitz Family Limited Partnership.

The authority paid the partnership $562,000, or about $7,000 an acre, authority executive director Christine Maggi-Weigle said Friday.

The acquisition will give the authority room to make upgrades required to meet Chesapeake Bay pollution regulations and expand its facilities to meet the demand of potential growth in its service area, Maggi-Weigle said.

The authority is outgrowing its facilities, which include the treatment plant, field operations building and administrative offices packed into a 14-acre complex, Maggi-Weigle said.

"When we first started the process of how to comply with the Chesapeake Bay requirements, we were trying to jam all these improvements inside 14 acres," she said.

"It didn't allow us to plan for future regulations," she added. "While we're here planning for the Chesapeake Bay, there are discussions about pharmaceuticals in waste water and possibly more stringent pollution standards."

The additional property will allow the authority to build a separate administrative building so the current building, which also houses a testing lab and treatment equipment, can be used solely for the latter two processes.

"We are stacked on top of each other here," Maggi-Weigle said. "We have effectively used every square foot of this building. It's time for us to move and use the footprint exclusively for the treatment process and lab facility."

The property also will accommodate a field operations facility and provide a "buffer" between authority facilities and neighbors, Maggi-Weigle said.

The authority was able to make the transaction by refinancing old debt. The authority refinanced bonds, initially issued in 1998, at a lower interest rate, which allowed it to gain $1.7 million in additional revenue without increasing its debt payment, authority finance director Wayne Martin said.

"We just got lucky with the rates," Martin said. "That's just the way the market is."

The funds raised through the refinancing were used to buy the property and also will be used to pay for improvements to the treatment facility, he said.

The improvements include electrical upgrades and the installation of three influent flow meters and an IntelliPro monitoring system.

The treatment plant now monitors the flow of treated waste water to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River but not the flow of untreated sewage to the facility, Maggi-Weigle said. Each meter will monitor flow from specific geographic service regions.

The IntelliPro system is a computer system that monitors in real time the biological makeup and levels of waste water throughout the treatment process. It also keeps track of trends and compiles historic data that can be easily found, she said.

The system will allow plant operators to make immediate changes to the treatment process to keep waste water treated.

Currently, if data related to a specific day or incident is needed, authority staff manually must sift through records and documents to find that data, she said.

The cost of the land acquisition and upgrades is just more than $1.3 million, Martin said.

According to Maggi-Weigle, about two years ago, the authority began exploring options regarding the best way to expand the treatment facility. A study by a consulting firm during that time also showed that administrative space had to be expanded.

The authority considered several options, including constructing a sludge processing building - a facility used in the middle of the treatment process - on land near where treat waste water was discharged into the river at the end of the process.

According to Maggi-Weigle, that was a bad place to put the sludge facility, but it was the only option available at the time.

The land acquisition changed that, however, she said. The land borders authority property on the east and west and runs parallel to the authority access road.

Maggi-Weigle said she believes the authority paid a "good price" for the land.

"The Hurwitz family was very fair and reasonable throughout the (sale) process," she said.

It is not yet known exactly where the administrative offices and field operations building will be located nor have funds been secured to build the facilities, she said.

Regardless, having the extra land is an important component in the authority's future ability to meet the needs of an area already growing at an accelerated rate, she said.

"This is absolutely essential to the future growth, not only of the authority, but of the growth corridor in the eastern part of the county," she said. "The authority was founded and the treatment plant went on line in 1998. Since that time there has been substantial growth and we don't see it slowing down."