Water is getting scarcer in Hamilton, St. Thomas and Peters
townships where 4,000 water customers are drawing down the reserves
of the Bear Valley Joint Authority.
Consumers have been on mandatory water restrictions since August:
Homeowners can't water lawns or wash cars; restaurants don't serve
water unless asked.
The authority has too little water for too many users, June
leaves with diminished water supplies for the start of summer.
AccuWeather.com forecasts little chance of rain in the first two
weeks of July. Precipitation for the year is 4 inches shy of normal.
"This looks bad," Authority Manager Bob John said. "If the
weather holds like this, we'll be in trouble. Even with restrictions
on, the storage is still dropping."
People appear to be consuming more water this year than last,
according to John.
"It's been so dry and so hot so early," he said.
The authority also has less water coming from its two sources:
To the east in June, the Borough of Chambersburg cut its
allocation of treated water by 18%, to 820,000 gallons a day.
To the west, where the authority draws water from Broad Run, the
tank at the water treatment plant is just two-thirds full.
"It's decreasing, not real rapidly, but it's decreasing," John
said. "The creeks are getting shallower as we speak."
Area stream flow is among the 15 lowest in the past 76 years,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey monitoring station on the
Conococheague Creek, near the Mason-Dixon Line.
June has had 11 days during which temperatures hit or topped 90
degrees, according to Chambersburg weather observer Jerry Ashway. In
the drought year of 2002 when Bear Valley also imposed mandatory
water restrictions, June had eight 90-degree days. July followed
with 19 and August with 15.
Broad Run has gone two weeks without a significant shower.
Dry weather is just the latest trouble for Bear Valley.
The authority is under a con-
sent order from the Department of Environmental Resources to
improve its water plant and distribution system within three years.
The authority raised water rates 35% in January to pay for the $10
million project.
No new homes can connect until the system is improved.
A pilot project testing treatment equipment at the water plant is
working well and should be completed in a month, according to John.
He said he and Chambersburg Borough Manager Eric Oyer continue to
talk about the authority's water allocation from the borough.
The next step to conserve Bear Valley water would be water
rationing. A ration plan would require state approval and would set
specific limits on individual water consumption.
"We're not close to rationing," John said.
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Jim Hook can be reached at 262-4759, or jhook@pubop.com.
Originally published June 30, 2005
