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Water service disruptions affecting East Dunkard customers

By Mike Jones newsroom@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
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Mike Jones

Dunkard Township supervisors Brian Gansor, left, and Rodger Franks work Wednesday afternoon to move cases of bottled water that were donated by Pennsylvania American Water to help East Dunkard customers who are without service this week.

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Mike Jones

Dunkard Township officials use heavy equipment Wednesday to move pallets of bottled water that were donated by Pennsylvania American Water to help East Dunkard customers who are without service this week.

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Mike Jones

Bobtown fire Chief John Friday inspects a water buffalo that was placed outside his village’s fire department Wednesday that will be used to fill jugs for East Dunkard customers who are without service this week.

Many people living in southeastern Greene County who rely on the East Dunkard Water Authority went to bed Tuesday night without water flowing from their taps. Now, customers whose pipes ran dry are wondering when the spigot will be turned back on again.

East Dunkard’s plant “experienced a breakdown in treatment” early Sunday morning that led to increased turbidity levels and forced a boil-water advisory Tuesday, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The situation eventually rendered the plant’s water filters “inoperable,” the DEP said, prompting EDWA officials to ask people to conserve their water usage, although many in the system said they have been without any running water for lengthy periods of time.

For the roughly 4,200 residents within the East Dunkard system who are accustomed to sporadic problems with the municipal authority, the lack of any water was highly unusual and especially concerning since it came with little warning.

“This is 2023. This should not be an issue,” Bobtown resident Robin Donley said Wednesday. “We don’t live in a third-world country. This is completely and utterly ridiculous, and the fact no one has stepped in and done anything about it makes us feel like we’re not worth anything.”

Donley said she came home around 10 p.m. Tuesday and turned on the kitchen sink faucet only to find that there was no running water, which indicated to her there were system-wide problems. The lack of a warning irked her and others who felt like they had no time to prepare, although Donley had just purchased eight jugs of water earlier in the day as part of her normal usage.

“We had no warning,” she said. “If we had at least been told that maybe you want to fill up the bathtub so you have some water in the house.”

The water authority sent out an advisory Tuesday asking people to boil their water over clarity issues that were apparently discovered shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, according to a DEP field notice. Later on Tuesday, a second advisory was issued alerting customers to conserve their water usage due to an unspecified emergency with low or no water pressure in certain areas.

“DEP suggested that the authority issue a mandatory conservation notification to customers, which it did (Tuesday),” DEP spokesperson Lauren Camarda said Wednesday. “DEP issued an emergency permit for the authority to bring in bulk water for customers until the filters are back online. It is DEP’s goal and priority that East Dunkard Water Authority customers receive ample, safe drinking water.”

Camarda said the DEP does not know when the plant will become operational again, but the agency’s workers are at the site assisting the authority’s staff.

East Dunkard officials also said they are unsure when the system would be up and running again, although they are currently pursuing other options to get water to customers sooner rather than later.

“Please know that the Authority understands the frustration that our customers are experiencing,” according to a statement posted to East Dunkard’s Facebook page Wednesday afternoon. “We are hopeful that we will be able to start pumping water again within 24 hours. Please remember that once we start pumping again to the tanks, it will take some time for our tanks to recover so it will be very important for all users of the system to conserve water.”

Board member Jerry Dorsey posted in a Facebook message Wednesday morning that the plant was not operating and EDWA was not producing any water for customers. He added that they were working with DEP to get an emergency hookup with Southwest Pennsylvania Water through its Sugar Grove pipeline to get water flowing consistently again.

In response to the emergency, water buffaloes were set up Wednesday afternoon at the Bobtown Fire Department, Mapletown High School and the water authority’s headquarters along Route 88 to help those in need. Cases of bottled water were also given to customers who went to those locations.

Pennsylvania American Water, which agreed in June to purchase East Dunkard and will take over the system later next year, donated the water buffaloes and 168 cases of bottled water. It was not immediately known if water would also be available at those locations today or later this week.

Meanwhile, classes across the Southeastern Greene School District were cancelled Wednesday and students will not have school today due to not having water in any of its schools.

Dunkard Township Supervisor Rodger Franks, who helped unload two pallets stacked with bottled water, said he hoped the situation would be resolved soon.

“I would just ask residents to be patient,” Franks said.

But even when the water does flow again, some residents don’t trust what’s coming out of the faucet.

Clarissa Eggers was outside her Dunkard Township home on Wednesday filling gallon jugs with water from a rain barrel near her front porch. She and her family only drink bottled water, but she plans to use the rainwater to flush their toilets and wash clothes.

“It’s the icing on the cake,” Eggers said of this week’s outage that followed numerous other problems. “We thought things were getting better and we’re going to get a new water provider. Steps forward, steps backward, and now this.”

Donley also no longer drinks the tap water due to various health problems she blames on the system. She, Eggers and nearly a dozen other residents filed a lawsuit Monday against the water authority, its predecessor when it was an association, and several energy and chemical companies over alleged negligence in providing clean drinking water going back more than a decade.

This week’s service problems appeared to be another blow for the troubled water authority.

“It’s just one problem after another,” Donley said. “We’re just fed up.”

East Dunkard serves customers in Dunkard and Greene townships, and parts of Cumberland, Monongahela, Perry and Whiteley townships.

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