Grant will help City of Lebanon Authority detect and reduce water leaks

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

Thanks to a grant from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), the City of Lebanon Authority (CoLA) this summer will be adding more leak detection equipment to its water distribution system in Lebanon city.

Besides the equipment, SRBC also awarded the authority a grant for improvements at Siegrist Reservoir. Announced at the board’s May meeting on Monday, May 12, both grants are part of SRBC’s Consumptive Use Grant program that is funded by fees associated with water-consuming industries, power plants and commercial entities that use water without returning it to rivers or streams.

Grant recipients are required to provide 20 percent of the total cost of the proposed project.

CoLA requested $516,000 for the purchase of additional leak-detection equipment. Currently, CoLA has 155 below-ground sensors as well as about a dozen mobile sensors. Changes in the sounds produced by these sensors indicate possible leaks, enabling CoLA to identify and repair issues before the leaks cause sinkholes or street collapse.

Read More: High-tech listening: Water authority’s innovative approach to leak detection

CoLA’s match contribution is $103,237, according to the authority’s grant application to SRBC.

As part of its water allocation permit issued by DEP in 2024, CoLA must develop a plan to reduce unaccounted-for water loss to a level of 20 percent or less within five years. In 2024, CoLA’s unaccounted-for water loss was to 22 percent of its daily withdrawals or 1,529,153 gallons per day.

While some of that unaccounted-for water loss is due to leaks or breaks, water used for hydrant flushing, street sweeping and firefighting is not metered and as such, not accounted for. Typically, water released because of leaks goes to ground water rather than returning to the surface waters that flow into the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay.

In 2019 and before any purchase of leak detection equipment, CoLA’s water loss was 30 percent or 2,815,940 gallons per day in 2019, said Tom Deitzler, CoLA deputy director, in an email.

“The leak detection equipment no doubt played a huge part in reducing this number, but the reduction also included a concerted effort to better estimate water lost through flushing hydrants or firefighting,” Deitzler said.

CoLA plans to target Lebanon city with the equipment as the city has most of the oldest water mains in the distribution system. Many of those mains are cast iron, which is prone to cracking and breaking with age. Of CoLA’s 300 miles of water mains, a third or 100 miles are cast iron.

SRBC also awarded the authority $113,333 for the installation of a new pipe, meter and valve to allow additional water from Siegrist Dam to flow into Mill and Swatara creeks. Total project cost is estimated at $136,000, according to the application.

This project also is related to CoLA’s new water allocation permit that increased conservation release requirements from Siegrist Dam to ensure adequate flowby for aquatic life and downstream users of Mill and Swatara creeks. Installation of a new pipe is needed to meet those requirements.

Besides the pipe, a new meter to measure flow and a new valve to control flow will be added to the existing minimum release facility at the Siegrist Reservoir, according to the grant application.

In other business, the board approved construction invoices for the wastewater treatment plant improvement project. Those were:

• Payment #14, $1,370,850.96, Pact Two LLC, general contracting;
• Payment #7, $24,840, Garden Spot Mechanical, plumbing;
• Payment #8, $68,051.68, Garden Spot Mechanical, HVAC;
• Payment #10, $169,025, Garden Spot Electrical, electric.

The board held an executive session after the meeting.

The City of Lebanon Authority Board meets at 2311 Ridgeview Road, Lebanon, on the second Monday of each month at 3 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, June 9. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.