Interconnect with Roaring Creek would give lower anthracite region’s water system resiliency
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Aqua Pennsylvania's Roaring Creek facility on Route 54 in Coal Township, near Elysburg, on Dec. 26, 2022.
SHENANDOAH – Aqua Pennsylvania plans to interconnect Shenandoah’s water system with their Roaring Creek system, which serves Girardville, Shamokin, and Mount Carmel, and the company’s president says that will give the region resiliency in water service.
Aqua President Marc Lucca spoke one-on-one with the Sentinel last week in an in-depth interview about the proposed sale, and you can read more from that interview here.
His company agreed to purchase the Municipal Authority of the Borough of Shenandoah for $12.5 Million in 2020, a sale that, while approved 6-1 by borough council, has seen several residents voice opposition.
Lucca said the MABS system would be run as a separate division of Aqua, with workers stationed in Shenandoah as they are now, while water will still be treated in Raven Run.
Though, he said, the system will interconnect with the Roaring Creek system, which he said would be beneficial in case either the Elysburg or Raven Run treatment plants go down, or in case of a drought.
“Because Shenandoah and Roaring Creek abut one another, we do plan to interconnect the two, and the interconnection affords reliability to both systems,” Lucca said. “I see this as an absolute positive for the residents of Shenandoah and the residents of Roaring Creek.”
The interconnection would allow one system to rely on the other in case of an extenuating circumstance to maintain service to the entire system.
The MABS system, through its reservoirs in Raven Run and Pattersonville, hold 830 Million gallons of water, while the Roaring Creek system has well over 1.5 Billion.
When asked if water from MABS would be used in the Roaring Creek system, Lucca was also asked if it could be used in the Eagle Rock system. Its plan to tap a well in the Nuremberg area was at the center of controversy in 2019. Lucca had nothing to provide regarding Eagle Rock.
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