Long boil-water advisory lifted for parts of one Lehigh Valley community
The municipal authority that sells water to East Bangor users has lifted its boil-water advisory, its solicitor said, despite the borough continuing to post on its website that affected customers should still boil their water.
Peter Layman, attorney for the East Bangor Municipal Authority, said Friday that customers whose telephone numbers the authority had were notified about the advisory being lifted around Thanksgiving. He said he was not aware about the boil-water notice still appearing on the borough’s website and said he would notify officials to remove it.
About 100 customers — roughly one-fourth of East Bangor’s 400 users — had to resort to boiling their water since late spring, after officials first spotted leaks in a 400,000-gallon reservoir cover according to the authority’s meeting minutes. The cover was installed in 2020.
No contaminants were found, but authority officials said Pennsylvania mandates closing a system if a leak could produce the potential of polluting substances.
Officials at the authority’s October meeting said they planned to have the giant cover replaced, with the reservoir filled and tested, before Thanksgiving.
The advisory affected residents in the Locke Heights area of East Bangor, including South Broad Street, Peter Jacob Drive and Rutt Road.
Customer James Chase said he received word Nov. 18 that the advisory had ended. “No further glitches since then,” said Chase, who resorted to boiling water every morning. Some residents, Chase said, had been receiving large deliveries of water.
In general, residents under such an advisory boil water from their faucets for at least one minute for drinking, preparing food or brushing teeth, or buy bottled water.
The East Bangor authority serves about 400 customers. Most of its customers are served from a separate system in neighboring Upper Mount Bethel Township. Connecting the reservoir customers to the other system would have risked not having enough water for firefighting, officials previously said.