Drought Continues; Lock Haven Looks at Alternatives

LOCK HAVEN, PA – City Manager Greg Wilson says that due to the continuing drought, Lock Haven’s water supply is down and there is concern about sufficient water to get through the winter without tapping into the Susquehanna River.

Wilson updated city council on the city’s “Stage 3 Drought Emergency” at its virtual meeting on Monday night. He reported the city’s Ohl Reservoir at Rosecrans is down 11 feet and at the Keller Reservoir near McElhattan there is no water going over the spillway, thereby triggering the drought emergency.

Wilson said the state estimates there should be enough water thru Feb. 28, but a city calculation puts the supply at some 18 days shy of that date.

In the meantime, Wilson said, the city is in the process of requesting that it be able to reduce the amount of water it lets into McElhattan Creek by 45 percent, reducing the daily outflow into the creek from 1,050,000 gallons per day to 577,000 gallons per day, providing more water for users. He said the state Department of Environmental Protection is currently looking at the city’s request and running models in order to provide an answer. This reduction, according to the city manager, would go a long way to ensuring that the city’s water supply can carry customers through the winter without having to look at alternate sources, such as running a line from the filtration plant to the Susquehanna River.

The city’s reservoirs supply both Lock Haven and Suburban Lock Haven Water Authority customers. Wilson said while the city’s customers and the city’s public works crews have done a “remarkable job at reducing use and finding leaks and addressing them that does not seem to be true of the Suburban Lock Haven Water Authority.” He said a year ago, the city was averaging 1.6 million gallons a day in demand and Suburban 1.2 million gallons a day. Due to what he called serious reduction efforts in unaccounted for water (fixing water main leaks), the city has reduced its current water use to about a million gallons a day, while Suburban’s consumption has not shown a reduction over the same time period. He said, “It is essential that every water user take this seriously, regardless of supplier, and take serious steps to reduce water use in their home and business for all of our sakes.”

Wilson said a “warmer, wetter winter would be fantastic” in terms of mitigating the drought situation.