DUBOIS – Aqua Pennsylvania President Marc Lucca was joined by area elected officials, regulators and others, as he cut the ribbon to celebrate the completion of the newly-rehabilitated wastewater plant in the Treasure Lake community in DuBois.
Guests were able to tour the new $8 million complex, which previously housed two treatment plants. Aqua redesigned the facility to consolidate all treatment at the newly-expanded west treatment plant.
The old east plant was demolished and is now the site of a new lift station that pumps all flow from that site to the newly-upgraded and expanded west plant for treatment.
The west plant has been retrofitted with new treatment process systems that improves the quality of the water discharged from the new plant into the water quality in Narrows Creek.
Lucca said Aqua is proud to be making the type of wastewater infrastructure improvements that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report says is required.
According to Lucca, a 2016 U.S. EPA survey showed that $271 billion is needed to maintain and improve the nation’s wastewater infrastructure, including the pipes that carry wastewater to treatment plants, the technology that treats the water and methods for managing stormwater runoff.
He also pointed to the American Society of Civil Engineers 2018 Infrastructure Report Card for Pennsylvania, which graded the state’s wastewater systems as a D-minus.
Citing the report, Lucca said: “If you couple the information from the EPA and the America Society of Engineers, there leaves little question about the importance—and urgency—for doing the type of work you are seeing here today.”
The Treasure Lake wastewater improvement project is one of many that make up Aqua’s $26 million 2019 capital program for its Western Division and Aqua Pennsylvania’s $323 million capital program.
Aqua’s Western Division Area Manager Jim Willard said that the wastewater project is about to be followed by an improvement to Treasure Lakes’ largest source water well referred to as N23.
The $4 million project will include a new treatment process specifically designed to remove iron and manganese from the well. New advanced pumping technology will enable Aqua to increase production of the well by 82 percent, without the need for any additional drilling.
Aqua’s Western Division provides water service to about 84,000 people throughout its service territory, which spans parts of Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Forest, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties.
Overall, the company serves approximately 1.4 million people in 32 counties throughout Pennsylvania. Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information, or follow Aqua on Facebook at facebook.com/MyAquaAmerica and on Twitter at @MyAquaAmerica.