NEWS
The Authority continues to provide its quality, cost effective services, while being committed to reinvesting in its infrastructure and meeting the ever increasing regulatory challenges in our industry.
The Authority is faced with continued challenges in the operations and maintenance areas and has identified several areas of emphasis.
- The Authority's sewage collection and water distribution systems are aging and have a number of areas in need of capital projects
- The Authority is also faced with meeting the ever increasing standards of state and federal regulatory agencies. Federal and state agencies continually increase regulations and pressures for clean water, both drinking and sewer. These are not optional mandates, failure to respond can lead to steep penalties. This is reality, and we are not immune because we are a small community
The Board remains committed to reinvesting in its infrastructure,
and maintaining the highest quality of services.
The Authority Board and staff will ensure that the Authority will meet their key minimum financial goals, along with providing the funding to address the replacement of key components in an aging infrastructure.
The best interests of our ratepayers continue to come first and foremost.
As always, it is the Authority's mission to provide our community with a safe, clean, reliable water supply as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. It is also our responsibility to be good stewards of the environment by providing the best available wastewater treatments to protect our environment and waterways. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions on how we can improve our service to you, please contact us.
The volunteer members of the Authority Board have approved a number of projects in recent years to provide a high quality and redundant water supply for its customers. Those projects include:
- Installation of an arsenic treatment system at Wells #4 and #5
- Repainting and continued maintenance on the interior and exterior of the water storage tanks
- Replacement of the water main and service lines on Main Street in Schwenksville Borough and Church Road in Lower Frederick Township
- Rehabilitation of its Well #7
- Installation of an inter-connection with North Penn Water Authority providing for redundant water supplies for the public water system
- Negotiated a long term water supply contract with Aqua Pennsylvania to supplement the water supply
- Upgrades to various water mains and services throughout the distribution system
- Purchase of leak detection devices to minimize water loss in the distribution system
- Completion of a meter replacement program to provide 100% radio read technology of the Authority's water meters
Additionally, The Board of Directors have upgraded various components of the wastewater treatment system and taken measures to decrease any negative impact of its wastewater operations in the Borough. Those projects include:
- Installation of a new influent pump station
- Upgrades to the trickling filters
- Investigation and implementation of a chemical addition to reduce odors
- Changes to sludge processing operations to reduce odors
- Replacement of portions of the sewer main and laterals on Main Street
- Coordination with the Schwenksville Borough Council to pass a sewer lateral inspection and maintenance ordinance to reduce extraneous flow into the collection system
- Purchase of a stand-alone high capacity diesel pump to assist with flood control
- Ongoing evaluation using in channel flow meters and lining of sewer mains to reduce extraneous flows into the collection system thereby reducing operating costs, and eliminating overflows
- Upgrades to its emergency notification systems at the Authority's pump stations
- Ongoing evaluation for flood control, and odor control at the wastewater treatment facility
- Upgrades to the emergency generator at the wastewater treatment plant
Flood 2021
Late evening September 1, 2021, the entire first floor of SBA is submerged
Early morning September 2, 2021.
After hours of receding, this is similar to the amount of water we had in the 2020 flood
A visual of the water line in the building
The incredible power of water
Five foot cabinets, full of years of SBA history, completely submerged
What a mess, a muddy, stinky mess