Consuming water in Lackawanna Valley flows from reservoirs courting to 1800s

DUNMORE — Much of the Lackawanna Valley’s consuming water at this time flows from actions taken within the mid- and late-1800s, when Lake Scranton and its feeder reservoirs had been constructed.

At that point, business rising the world and its inhabitants additionally introduced air pollution and required creation of latest sources of unpolluted faucet water. Between 1845 and 1898, 10 reservoirs had been created by damming Roaring Brook, Little Roaring Brook and Stafford Meadow Brook, and an eleventh reservoir was added in 1927 on Little Roaring Brook.

Today, these reservoirs are all owned by Pennsylvania American Water as a part of its Lake Scranton water provide, distribution and remedy system. The Lake Scranton water remedy plant, which serves 55,000 buyer connections in Scranton and surrounding areas, is the biggest PAW remedy plant in jap Pennsylvania and PAW’s third largest within the state, firm spokeswoman Alana Roberts mentioned. The largest two serve Pittsburgh.

The water firm has been underneath state mandate over the previous 20 years to rehabilitate previous dams all through the state to make sure their structural integrity and water provides for the subsequent century and longer, mentioned Kurt Staller, PAW’s engineering supervisor of dams. Since 2012, the corporate has spent almost $100 million on dam rehabilitations, Staller mentioned. PAW provided a tour of three dams — on the Elmhurst Reservoir, Dunmore No. 7 Reservoir and Curtis Reservoir — to the The Sunday Times to spotlight infrastructure enhancements the corporate has made and is making. These dams symbolize one already rehabilitated, one wrapping up work and one getting eliminated solely.

The firm’s 47 dams statewide have a mean age of 107 years, he mentioned. In Lackawanna County, the mandate affected the Lake Scranton system and its feeder reservoirs and dams. The oldest two reservoirs within the Lake Scranton system had been constructed by coal firms, and later ones executed by the previous Scranton Gas and Water Co. or prior entities, Staller mentioned.

“Back in the 1800s, the coal mining days, it started as springs and river intakes and as the communities expanded they needed more (drinking) water, so then they started building storage reservoirs,” Staller mentioned. “All of these reservoirs are on smaller streams because the main corridor (primarily the Lackawanna River) was getting heavily polluted, so they moved to these smaller watersheds for cleaner water.”

The reservoirs within the Lake Scranton system embody:

• Dunmore No. 3 Reservoir: constructed 1845; 9 acres floor space; 55 acre-feet storage.

• Dunmore No. 4 Reservoir: constructed 1847; 6 acres floor space; 31 acre-feet storage.

• Dunmore No. 7 Reservoir: constructed 1872; 18 acres floor space; 310 acre-feet storage.

• Dunmore No. 1 Reservoir: constructed 1877; 23 acres floor space; 230 acre-feet storage.

• Elmhurst Reservoir: constructed 1889; 181 acres floor space; 2,115 acre-feet storage.

• Williams Bridge Reservoir: constructed 1893; 43 acres floor space; 1,034 acre-feet storage.

• Lake Scranton Reservoir: constructed 1898; 225 acres floor space; 7,642 acre-feet storage.

• Marshwood Reservoir: constructed 1927; 37 acres floor space; 113 acre-feet storage.

• Johnson’s Pond Reservoir: no historic or capability information supplied on this smaller physique upstream of the previous Hollister Reservoir.

• Hollister Reservoir: Beset from sinkhole failure on the outset of its building within the Seventies, this dam was by no means absolutely rehabilitated earlier than PAW possession and the corporate lastly eliminated it a number of years in the past, returning that space to its pure stream.

• Curtis Reservoir: Currently being eliminated due to a latest slope failure and the physique of water will return to its pure stream.

Each reservoir began out as very localized, however over time mergers mixed them into one system. They ultimately all ended up underneath the successor system owned and operated by Pennsylvania American Water. The system feeds Lake Scranton by gravity, pumping and in some circumstances miles of direct piping.

“This is how our customers in the (Lackawanna River) valley are getting their drinking water, through all of these dams eventually leading down to the Lake Scranton plant,” Roberts mentioned.

Each dam additionally is exclusive, Staller mentioned.

“They all kind of have their own personality,” Staller mentioned. “They have their own geology, hydrology, how they were built and where they were sited, which makes each one unique.”

Construction within the 1800s typically concerned cut-stone masonry, and these dams are constructed of huge stone blocks. The interiors typically had been stuffed with rubble. At the No. 7 Reservoir, the corporate drilled down by way of the highest of the dam at intervals throughout its size, and down into the bedrock, and put in metal pressure strand anchors for added assist, “to essentially hold the dam to the bedrock,” Staller mentioned.

Some of the native reservoirs are pretty distant and don’t have any public entry. But some others, together with Lake Scranton and Dunmore No. 1 Reservoir, have strolling trails and are common out of doors recreation respites for the general public. To spotlight the historical past of the system, the corporate plans to put in at Lake Scranton in a yr or so informational indicators with historic photographs, details and figures to inform the story of the precursor Scranton Gas and Water and Spring Brook water firms, Staller mentioned.

“We’re going to lay it out across the trail (at Lake Scranton) so people walking the trail can kind of essentially follow the history,” Staller mentioned.