The things people are complaining about, he said, are mostly due to the MRWA improving the water system.
DEP steps in, water authority must submit ‘corrective action plan’ The state DEP has been keeping a close watch over the MRWA since the events of January 2018 that Yost calls a “critical condition.” At that time, the system was experiencing water outages due to extremely low water supply and the water was not safe to drink, so MRWA issued a boil water advisory.
Under the agreement, MRWA must submit a “corrective action plan” to DEP by Dec. 24, 2018, which must include a “detailed schedule of actions that will be taken to correct the violations identified in the order.” Some of those violations include having unmetered service connections, 40 percent or more unaccounted water loss, an inadequate supply of water and failing water lines.
During the weeks of Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, MRWA was installing pressure reducing valves and meter pits in different locations within the water system.
Mountaintop residents: water is ‘not in any condition to drink’ Though MRWA is required by law to notify its customers before doing work on the system, Melanie Hockenberry said she never got such alerts.
Dana Tumbleson, who works for and is a resident of Snow Shoe Township, said he and his family “buy bottled water for our own sake.” They don’t allow their animals to drink the water from the system, instead opting to give them water from mountain springs in the area.
Tumbleson, too, said he knows the water authority is doing all it can to fix the leaks in the system and get the water level higher.
Authority acknowledges problems with communication The Mountaintop water authority alerts its customers of any work being done on the system through an emergency notification and alert system called SwiftReach, said Yost.
But sometimes, there is an emergency leak and no time to notify all the customers that work is being done, said Yost.
Not for it to be out for 2 days, dirty the days following, and still having to purchase water,” she wrote in an email.