NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
23 June 2003

CITY & UNITED WATER PA COMPANY SIGN WATER SALES AGREEMENT; UWPA TO PURCHASE UP TO 5 MILLION GALLONS PER DAY AS NEEDED

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed and United Water Pennsylvania(UWPA) Inc. General Manager and Vice President John D. Hollenbach today announced that the Harrisburg and United Water systems have finalized an agreement that will enable the company to purchase up to 12 million gallons of water per day during an emergency from the Harrisburg Water System, and up to 5 million gallons per day under other circumstances.

The Mayor and Hollenbach said the deal will enable the UWPA system to easily meet its growing daily customer consumption needs, and for the first time, provides the company with a back-up source for water. An interconnection between the two systems just north of the city, established several years ago, will be the transmission point for raw water being fed from the DeHart Dam, ensuring that United Water system customers will have an essentially drought-proof supply of fresh water, as does the Harrisburg water system. The agreement will also help the UWPA system meet regulatory standards at its N. Sixth Street Water Treatment Plant during unfavorable conditions in the Susquehanna River, UWPA’s primary raw water supply source.

Hollenbach lauded the city’s efforts over the past decade to ensure a safe and reliable source for drinking water for its residents and customers. “We understand well the importance of having a safe, reliable and redundant supply of raw water, so as to better meet the needs and growth of our customer base. Harrisburg has really distinguished itself over the past decade with its commitment to improving and enhancing its water system, so much so that it is clearly now one of the leaders in the state and nation in addressing what will most certainly become a critical and potentially very expensive infrastructure issue in the coming years.”

The Mayor noted that Harrisburg in the past decade constructed a new state-of-the-art water filtration and treatment facility in north Harrisburg, and, for the first time since the 1972 Hurricane Agnes Flood, also constructed a back-up water source in the Susquehanna River. The majority of the city’s freshwater supplies come from the 6 billion gallon capacity DeHart Dam in middle Dauphin County. Water from the DeHart and its 27 feeder tributaries and streams is gravity-fed to the city’s Dr. Robert E. Young Water Treatment Plant, where it is then pumped to Reservoir Park for gravity-fed distribution systemwide.

Reed said a river intake was constructed at the same time to provide the system with a back-up source of raw water in the event the DeHart line was ever shutdown or otherwise compromised. The two plentiful supplies of water have made the city and its water customers basically drought-proof, and at far lower costs than most water systems can provide.

“The ability to provide safe, reliable and low-cost water is going to become a major issue for municipalities across the nation in the coming years,” said the Mayor. “This will be a key factor in the location of businesses, new residents and the daily costs of doing business. Those communities with an assured supply of affordable water are going to be the nation’s future hotspots for growth and development, and Harrisburg and its surrounding communities serviced by the Harrisburg Water System are very much going to benefit from the efforts we have undertaken over the past decade.

“We salute the UWPA company for its vision and commitment to providing a high level of service to its customers here in Central Pennsylvania.”

Reed said that the more than 66,000 current residential and business customers of the Harrisburg Water System, including residents of the city, Susquehanna Township and the Borough of Penbrook, use an average of 10 to 12 million gallons of water per day. The agreement with UWPA allows for an average daily purchase of 5 million gallons of raw water, and up to 12 million gallons per day in the event of an emergency that would limit United’s other supply sources. The water purchased by UWPA will be transmitted to its own water treatment facilities for final consumer preparation and processing, rather than through the city’s treatment plant, which by state regulations is only permitted to process up to 20 million gallons per day.

During the severe droughts of the past several years, the city water system also provided millions of gallons of water to municipal water systems in Newport, Duncannon, Frederick, Maryland and other hard-stricken local municipalities, primarily to help keep fire hydrant systems working but for individual consumption as well.

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