Correspondent
CANTON — The Canton Borough Water Authority has stayed busy in recent weeks. At the monthly meeting on April 13, Manager Ryan Machmer reported selling 362,000 gallons of bulk water worth $4,353 in the month of March.
Stormwater collected in March was valued at $2,454. Bradford County Collections also sent its monthly $600 restitution check from Brenda Mott for the month of March.
The Water Authority pumped 360,000 gallons of water per day in the month of March, with about ½ of that being leaks. Water service employees have been inspecting service lines looking for leaks. While there are listening devices that can be used to detect leaks, their effectiveness is limited in newer plastic water lines than in older metal ones. The Water Authority will likely look to go street-by-street shutting off lines to find and repair the leaks in the coming months.
The plant effluent has been testing higher than acceptable standards in Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS). This is due to the sludge tank being full. With sludge being spread the test values are likely to stabilize. Related soil samples have been taken and sent to Penn State Ag Labs in order for the sludge spreading to maintain environmental compliance.
The Water Authority will soon conduct a final inspection and amortization to pay its contractor and formally close out the Sewer Upgrade Project. The Project has cost $11,671,326.97 to date.
Machmer has been searching for different contractors to build a sign for the front of the Water Treatment Plant. It was suggested that rather than go through an outside catalog, Machmer contact the high school wood shop teacher and see if the students could build a sign as a project.
In regards to the proposed Troy Street water line upgrade, Machmer, along with authority members Neil Nelsen and Frank Watson met with Britt Bassett of Bassett Engineering as a preliminary meeting to discuss the project. Bassett answered questions regarding location of lines and timeframe of the project. There was discussion on whether to actually run the new line on the East or West side of Troy Street. While the East was the originally proposed side, the west side of the road has less existing units that would have to be worked around. Further discussion will be held in future meetings.
The water authority plans to meet next month at the water treatment plant office May 11th at 6:30.