City of Lebanon Authority asks customers to conserve water

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

The City of Lebanon Authority (CoLA) is asking water customers to voluntarily reduce water usage by 10 to 15%.

Tom Deitzler, CoLA executive director, told the authority board Monday that the county was elevated from “drought watch” to “drought warning” stage by the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Drought Task Force in late June. It is one of eight counties with the drought warning status.

From July 1 through 11, CoLA measured 1.28 inches of rain at its water treatment plant outside of Jonestown and 0.63 inches at Siegrist Reservoir, Deitzler said.

“The water level at the reservoir is decreasing 1.25 to 1.5 inches a day, so we are drawing less from it,” he said. “The Swatara Creek’s level has dropped a bit, but we are still comfortable taking a little more than usual from it.”

Recommended conservation actions include shortening shower time, running dishwashers and washing machines with only full loads, and checking for indoor and outdoor water leaks.

DEP and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency monitor precipitation, stream flows, groundwater levels and soil moisture to identify drought stages. A key indicator is the amount of storage remaining in the Siegrist Reservoir, which when full holds 1.2 billion gallons.

Precipitation in the first six months of 2026 set a record for the lowest amount in the past 10 years, according to rainfall data at Siegrist Dam.

From January to June, only 14.06 inches were recorded. Amounts in previous years for that six-month period have ranged from 18.45 inches in 2023 to 34.90 inches in 2019. June 2026 also recorded the lowest amount of precipitation of any previous June in the last 10 years.

DEP issued a drought watch for Lebanon County in January 2026. That status called for voluntarily reducing water usage by 5 to 10%.

Water usage by CoLA’s customers in January averaged 6.14 million gallons/day; February, 6.60 mgd; March, 6.05 mgd; April, 6.09 mgd; May, 6.15 mgd; and June, 6.45 mgd.

The first 12 days of July topped June’s average usage. During the height of the heat wave, July 1-3, 7.15 mgd left the treatment plant, Deitzler said in an email. On July 4, when the heat wave broke and the county experienced some storms, water usage dropped to 5.66 mgd.

“We can see from the first 12 days of July that the average flow leaving the water treatment plant is 6.54 mgd, which is higher than June’s average,” said Deitzler in an email Tuesday. “I’m sure there are customers who are trying to conserve which is greatly appreciated, but I’m also realistic that not everyone is on board.”

Should the county’s drought status be raised to a drought emergency, then mandatory restrictions are implemented and enforced, according to CoLA’s drought contingency plan.

The next meeting of the Drought Task Force is scheduled for July 31.

In a related matter, Deitzler updated the board about the water system modeling study currently underway by Black & Veatch engineering. That study is looking at how CoLA can increase its transmission capacity and its distribution capacity as well as how to mitigate spread of contaminants.

“They are putting numbers to their recommendations, and some recommendations will be costly,” Deitzler told the board.

In other business, the board:

• Ratified and accepted the 2025 audit that indicated no issues.
• Ratified payment of June invoices over $10,000, totaling $1,324,166.

An executive session was held after the meeting to discuss possible property acquisition.

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, Aug. 10. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.