Progress reported in Lock Haven effort to address water supply shortage

LOCK HAVEN, PA – The City of Lock Haven is moving ahead with plans to deal with low water levels in its Ohl and Keller reservoirs. And according to information at a special city council meeting Monday, the clock is ticking as the water supply drops.

Representatives from the city’s engineering firm, Gwin, Dobson & Foreman, said there is a 74-day supply of water in the system’s two reservoirs, and it could take up to two months to complete an already authorized emergency tap-in to two wells put in place last summer in Wayne Township.

Council moved ahead with a unanimous Monday vote to implement the emergency water supply effort; the motion included approval of a letter to PennVEST, a state lending agency, seeking funds towards the project’s estimated one-million-dollar cost.

GD&F’s president, Mark Glenn, and facilities planning director/corporate secretary, James Balliet, provided council and representatives from the Suburban Water Authority and the Central Clinton County Water Filtration Authority with their update. The city supplies water to customers on its system as well as to Suburban Water; that water goes through the Water Filtration Authority’s treatment plant.

Because of the purity of the well water to augment the city system, Balliet said, it will not have to go through the filtration plant but will need to be chlorinated, among the expenses involved in bringing the emergency system online. Those costs will include $350,000 in pipes and another $200,000 in additional expenses, improvements which can be re-used in an already planned system upgrade.

Balliet said there are still “a few pieces of the puzzle” to be put together in bringing the new water source online and “everyone has been cooperative to this point.” As for the timeline, it would take at least a month and up to two months to get the hook-up up and running.

Glenn said contact has already been made with PennVEST about a 20-year loan at an interest rate of less than two percent to put toward project costs, what he called a path forward on funding. In the meantime, City Manager Greg Wilson said, the city has access to its bond issue to cover the short-term costs.

Representatives from the filtration authority expressed concern about a recent uptick in water usage within the Lock Haven system. They said it spiked on July 31 and usage has remained up, some 300 to 400 thousand gallons more a day since then, even with the city’s emergency usage declaration. City officials could not account for the change, manager Wilson said the city is not aware of a “single leak not being addressed.” GD&F’s Glenn said the city system is old, some of it still cast-iron pipes dating back 100 to 130 years.

According to information Monday, city usage is 3.2 million gallons a day since spiking in July. Jack Peters, chairman of the Suburban Authority, said the Suburban system consumes around 1-million gallons a day and that number has been slightly less recently.

Council member Steve Stevenson reiterated the call for customers of both systems to work to reduce their water consumption while the emergency declaration is in effect.

There was a brief discussion about setting up a joint authority to oversee the several authorities now involved in the process of supplying water to the Lock Haven-Mill Hall area. Those in attendance at the amicable meeting agreed to pursue the matter in the near future.