SCRANTON — Nearly a decade after the landmark sale of the Scranton wastewater system to a water company, the skeleton Scranton Sewer Authority still exists and is working on securing a few dozen outstanding sewer-line easements and assignments.

The authority had not dissolved after the $195 million sewer sale to Pennsylvania American Water closed in December 2016 and remained in existence to obtain hundreds of easements that inexplicably were never previously acquired over many prior decades.

Sewer-line easements are necessary for quick, emergency access to a property, if ever needed.

In developing the sewer sale a decade ago, the SSA discovered that about 600 easements were somehow never obtained. That led to a class-action lawsuit against the authority in November 2016 over compensation to property owners for providing easements. In December 2020, SSA reached a $7 million settlement with most of the 600 property owners.

In January of 2024, the board hired the Durkin MacDonald law firm of Dunmore to resolve the last batch of missing sewer-line easements, at that time believed to potentially have been about 80, that the authority needed to secure before it could dissolve and cease to exist. In April of 2024 longtime SSA Solicitor Jason Shrive resigned, and attorney Larry Durkin of Durkin MacDonald became the SSA solicitor.

Durkin and his firm have continued to winnow the list of easements, as well as outstanding assignments of easements that also must be obtained and recorded. An assignment is a legal transfer of an easement from one party, such as a property owner, to another entity, such as the sewer system.

At an April 21 meeting, attorney Neil MacDonald, who was filling in as solicitor for Durkin, and the board discussed the status of the overall situation and cited progress made in terms of the numbers of easements and assignments recently completed, and those still in the works as of April 16.

• Of 90 properties listed for discussion, 69 were in the easements category and 21 were in the assignments category.

• A total of 37 from both categories had been completed, including 26 easements and 11 assignments.

• That left a total of 53 outstanding,(90 minus 37 = 53) including 43 easements and 10 assignments.

• However, some or possibly several of those in both groups considered as outstanding actually may not be, as the law firm is working through requesting and cross-referencing with the water company mapping data on 41 of the 90 properties.

• And in two cases, the SSA seems to have pre-existing easements but the information is around a century old and may be vague or inaccurate; such that the authority intends to just obtain new  easements.

Meanwhile, the board voted 4-0 — with Chairman Michael Parker, Beth Zangardi, Jay Robinson and Pedro Anes all in favor — to authorize the solicitor to file legal declarations to obtain 10 of the outstanding assignments.

“It’s been a lot of juggling. It’s almost like a jigsaw puzzle,” MacDonald said of resolving the easements and assignments.

Parker, who has been on the board for over a decade now and is currently its longest-serving member, said, “I can say after years on this board that the (recent) progress has been substantial.”

When the authority might finally dissolve still remains unclear, but it probably won’t happen this year, MacDonald said.

Monday Update

THEN: In 2016, the Scranton Sewer Authority sold the sewer system serving Scranton and Dunmore to Pennsylvania American Water.

NOW: The skeleton authority still exists to secure outstanding sewer-line easements and is getting closer to finally completing the task and dissolving.