Recent rains, snow melt lift water level at Siegrist Reservoir

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

The combination of recent rains and snow melt has raised the water level at the City of Lebanon Authority’s Siegrist Reservoir.

A week ago, the level was down more than 10 feet, CoLA executive director Tom Deitzler said at Monday’s board meeting.

Since then, about 2 inches of rain have fallen, according to CoLA instruments at the reservoir. That precipitation, along with snow melt and CoLA’s decision to temporarily reduce the daily flow from the reservoir by 2 million gallons, has returned the reservoir’s level to where it was almost four months ago, said Darren Lucciotti, CoLA water treatment plant manager, in an email.

And the water level is still rising, he added.

“We were close to pushing a panic button,” Deitzler told the board. “We’ve been lucky the level has come back up.”

In January, the Commonwealth Drought Task Force listed Lebanon County as one of 34 counties under a drought watch due to scant rainfall from August through December last year and into January. A drought watch calls for voluntary water conservation measures. CoLA is asking customers to reduce water use by 5% to 10%, which equates to about six to 13 gallons of water per day.

“The rain and snow melt definitely has helped, but we are still well below where we usually are at this time of year,” said Deitzler in an email. “At the end of February for the last three years, we typically have had overflow at the spillway. The water level is still below the spillway.”

In a related matter, Deitzler said CoLA is pushing back hydrant flushing usually done in the spring until September due to the low water levels.

Deitzler also told the board that CoLA will install a meter on the reservoir’s blowoff pipe to measure flow from the reservoir into Mill Creek. CoLA opened a valve on the pipe in November to help meet flowby requirements set by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Adequate flowby protects aquatic life and water supplies of downstream users.

Without the release from the blowoff pipe, CoLA relies upon a 6-inch pipe at the reservoir. While that pipe can release some water, it cannot meet CoLA’s permitted flowby requirements. Those vary by month with the lowest amount — 3.1 mgd — set for July, August and October. In contrast, flowby in March and April is 7.1 mgd and 7.6 mgd, respectively.

CoLA has proposed adding a new 12-inch pipe at the Siegrist Dam to facilitate release of more water so as to meet flowby requirements but has not received a permit from DEP to begin that work.

In other business, the board:

• Held an executive session to discuss a proposed interconnect between Cornwall Borough and West Cornwall Township. No action was taken, Deitzler said in an email after the meeting.
• Heard the wastewater treatment plant improvement project is nearing completion.
• Learned 1,600 of 3,600 MXU units have been replaced. These units enable use of radio signals to read water usage.
• Ratified payments of February invoices totaling $1,663,262.23.

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, April 13. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.