Township of Falls AuthorityTOFA History
The original Township of Falls Authority (TOFA) franchise area for water and sewer service was purchased from the Danhurst Corporation in 1961. Included in the purchase was a one million gallon-per-day water plant just west of Newbold Road which treated the water supplied by three nearby wells. As the demand for service grew, however, TOFA required supplemental water sources. In time, additional water was sourced from interconnects with neighboring water systems, which eventually became primary sources when the water plant and wells were shut down in 1979 due to their growing inefficiencies.
Sewer service was also handled by a small treatment facility originally constructed by the Danhurst Corporation in the early 1950s. And like the water system, the sewer system wasn’t always capable of taking on new development. This led to the sewer service being divided among several service providers based upon service agreements, drainage basins and chartered service areas. Unfortunately, this resulted in an incongruity between the water and sewer service areas within the Township, where it was possible to have a different provider for each service. After 1989, however, all the sewerage being collected by TOFA ended up being conveyed to other entities for final treatment.
As for the Authority, in December of 1995 it was dissolved and the ownership of and responsibility for the two systems fell to Falls Township. That scenario remained in place through December of 2006 at which time the Township of Falls Authority was reborn with the sole purpose of better serving the needs of the water and/or sewer customer.
Our Sewer System:
The system is comprised of 60 miles of concrete, iron and clay pipes. Gravity and 11 pump stations transport approximately 3 million gallons of sewerage every day.
Most of the Authority’s sewage is conveyed to the Philadelphia Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant, through the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority’s Neshaminy Interceptor. Smaller fractions of the Authority’s sewage are treated by the Morrisville Municipal Authority and the Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority.
- U.S. Steel Corp. – 4,400
- Lower Bucks Joint Municipal Authority – 4,250
- Philadelphia Water Department – 2,750
- Morrisville Municipal Authority – 1,000
Our Water System:
The system is comprised of 60 miles of pipe fed from five interconnections with two neighboring water systems (Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority and Morrisville Municipal Authority) and provides approximately 2.85 million gallons of potable water per day. There are also two emergency interconnections.
Three pumping stations are utilized to boost the water pressure entering the system, while four elevated water storage tanks help maintain that pressure as well as provide adequate fire protection.