LSA NEWS – SUMMER 2009

The Authority Administrator (Gar W. Davidson) and Engineer (J. Bradley Youst) made a presentation to the Hellertown Borough Council and answered questions at their June 15, 2009 Council Meeting.

A series of issues that had been raised previously by Borough Council, and then addressed by the Authority in a letter this March, were discussed and the specific issues were clarified as needed.

Glenn Higbie, Manager of the Hellertown Borough Authority also spoke in favor of the proposed project, which would ultimately provide public sewer service to 400+ customers in the Hellertown Park, Leithsville, Bingen and Bingen East (between Bingen and the Creekside Shopping Center) Areas.

The project would be focused on providing public sewer service to existing, older neighborhoods with smaller lots, etc. and represents the logical next step in complementing the original public sewer system which built by the Township in 1989.

There was a general consensus on the concept and the responses given by the Authority. The Borough Council voted 4-2 in favor of allowing the development of a tentative easement agreement through the Hellertown-owned properties and parklands to the west of Hellertown proper. If this can be accomplished and an agreement executed by the parties over the coming months, the next step would be to refine the route by doing a series of core borings to further refine the desired route in late fall.

While there is much more work to do, this was a critical first step and reflects cooperation between Hellertown Borough and the Lower Saucon and Hellertown Borough Authorities.

A good discussion of the history of this project, the areas that it is intended to serve and the tentative route is included on this hyperlink: Presentation. It should be noted that this is a rather large (3.4 MB) file, which can be viewed online with a high speed cable connection, but might be very slow using a dial-up connection (phone modem). A copy will be available at the Authority offices for anyone wishing to view it directly.

The Authority will continually update this website to keep residents apprised of progress on the project. Once we have a tentative gravity route defined and approved with Hellertown, the Authority will bring the plan back to the Lower Saucon Township Council, who are in charge of Sewage Facilities Planning for the Township and would review and initiate the formal Act 537 Plan Review Process.  That process will involve a series of public meetings, technical and environmental reviews and a full review by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Consumer Confidence (CCR) / Water Quality Report

The annual CCR Report  for calendar year 2008 was mailed Monday June 15, 2009 to all Lower Saucon Authority water customers.

It describes water quality test results taken by Authority technicians and our water supplier, the City of Bethlehem, within the system throughout 2008.

A copy of the report is currently attached to this website and can be accessed by following the highlighted link above. It is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file and can be read using the free Acrobat Reader available online at www.adobe.com. Customers desiring an extra paper copy should contact the Authority office.

The report, required by a 1996 amendment to the Clean Water Act, provides detailed information on the source of the water in the system and testing results / water quality in the system.

Allan Cheung and Ken Niewoehner joined the Board in March.  Allan replaces Mary Curtin and Ken replaces Dr. Robert Russo.  We welcome Allan and Ken and extend our heartfelt thanks to Mary and Dr. Russo for their many years of dedicated service.

Main Replacement Project - McCloskey Avenue

The Authority is installing some 1180 feet of 6-inch Ductile Iron Pipe to replace 1940's vintage 3-inch pipe on McCloskey Avenue in Wydnor, and to complete the loop from the intersection with Walters to Strauss. This is part of a continuing infrastructure replacement and renewal program and will take place in June - July.

Spring Hydrant Flushing Schedule

The Authority conducted the annual hydrant flushing operation the final two weeks of April again this year (April 20 – May 1).  Customers were notified by the OneCallNow automated phone messaging system the day before their area was flushed.

The Authority donated a used copier to the Se-Wy-Co Fire Company in May. 

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