LH City Council Holds Meeting To Provide Update on Water Emergency Status: City-Hired Engineers Report Unexpected Reservoir Gains and Cease Work on Temporary System
By Emily Wright
LOCK HAVEN – Lock Haven City Council held a joint meeting of the council and representatives from Suburban Water Authority and Central Clinton County Water Filtration Authority on Monday evening. Updates to the emergency water project were provided by representatives from the city-hired engineers, Gwin Dobson and Foreman (GD&F).
“For the City of Lock Haven’s emergency water supply, currently we’ve experienced a large gain in the reservoir [which was] unexpected, since the beginning of December,” Devin Jarrett, project manager for GD&F, explained at the meeting. Between September and the beginning of December, the Ohl Reservoir water levels indicated that the City of Lock Haven was in an emergency drought status, but according to reports from GD&F, there is less concern for emergency water usage at this time.
“There’s still some leak detection survey in progress right now, and we’re no longer pursuing an in-stream flow reduction between Ohl and Keller Reservoir,” Jarrett said. Having most of the temporary system installed within budget, all expenses incurred up to date, and almost all equipment suitable for the permanent project, Jerrett reported that “at this point, we’ve kind of hit a point where we’re comfortable.”
Facilities Planning Director and Corporate Secretary for GD&F, James Balliet, was also present at the meeting and spoke on behalf of the status of the emergency water project status. “The Ohl Reservoir has a capacity of 550 million gallons and we’ve gained enough here in the last month and a half to two months where it’s now around 400 million of that 558, so we’re at basically 72% of the reservoir,” he said. “So we’re almost out of the stage one drought trigger for water restriction”. Balliet explained that there has been enough rainfall and snowmelt to bring the city’s water supply out of emergency status. “We’ve ceased any further work on this temporary system.”
Balliet said that having taken the steps to get the two wells connected over the past two months on an emergency basis has been “very beneficial” because the city was able to receive permits from the Department of Environmental Protection for the two wells, and is expecting to get a permit from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission this week. “When the city goes to permit these wells on a permanent standpoint, all that regulatory review by DEP and SRBC has already been completed, so that’s very beneficial,” he said.
Despite the reservoirs refilling naturally, Balliet explained that there have been “some hurdles” while installing the temporary system, one of which being that some property owners were “less than willing” to allow the engineers to do necessary construction to repair leaking water lines on their property. Additionally, there have been some permitting issues with the railroad and PPL Electric Services for three-phase power. According to Balliet, these hurdles have allowed GD&F to prepare for when the city goes to permit the wells permanently, saying, “We’ll have a better start on that and shouldn’t have any project delays moving forward, so a lot was learned.”
Balliet further explained that with the majority of the system already in place combined with the recent rainfall and snowmelt, the project does not need to continue moving forward at this time. “Because of the water that’s in Ohl now, we don’t feel that it justifies going any further. The intent is to leave the pipe sit there, the pumps are in the wells, the generators that we rented are going back, and if for some reason we don’t get any rain moving forward or snowmelt and we have a dry spring, they’ll be sitting there, so if it has to be used, we’ll have it at our disposal,” he said. “That will allow the city to move forward towards permanent permitting of the sources and once that’s done, the pipe that’s out there will be used on a permanent basis,” he said. “It’s a good thing that we don’t have to use this temporary system and it’s a good thing that the materials can be reused. It’s a good thing that we learned of some of the hurdles that we would have to overcome with the permanent permitting, which we were able to address sooner rather than later, so it’s beneficial in that respect.”
According to Jarrett, almost all of the equipment can be used for the permanent installation, and the generators will be returned, saving the city a $4,000 monthly expense.
