When Pennsylvania American Water Company workers first entered the East Dunkard water treatment plant to take over operations in early February, they weren’t quite sure what problems they would be facing.
A malfunction at the facility in late October forced the plant to be shut down for several days, leaving the more than 4,200 people in the system without water and prompting state regulators to ask PAWC to take receivership of the troubled authority.
PAWC had already agreed to purchase the East Dunkard Water Authority for $5 million last summer, but now the company and its workers were being thrust into an emergency situation when they took control of the system Feb. 9 after the receivership was approved through a court order.
“It’s a good little plant,” said Tim Patterson, who works for PAWC and now serves as the facility’s interim operations manager. “It just needed some upgrades.”
While some residents were leery of PAWC moving in, company spokesman Tom Meinert said they’ve tried to be transparent with customers about the changes while also giving them tools to learn more about the upgrades. He pointed to regular updates on EDWA’s Facebook page and website, along with direct mailers and phone alerts.
The treatment plant can take in up to 550 gallons of water per minute, but the PAWC team has ratcheted that number down to between 375 and 400 gallons per minute since they are running the operation continuously 24 hours a day. In March, the workers only shut down the plant on two separate occasions for a total of less than an hour. Before PAWC took over, the plant often would be shut down numerous times each day.
Patterson said they’ve had a good experience training the plant’s eight workers, who have all been retained. He thinks the supervision and knowledge they’re getting from PAWC’s experts is helping them to learn how to operate the plant properly.
“The employees were so willing to learn and happy to have their questions answered,” said Tiffany Reed, who serves as senior manager of operations for this region.
After performing daily and even minute-by-minute reports that are sent to the DEP, the operation will soon be able to scale back to monthly reports that are more typical.
One of the reasons the receivership was turned over to PAWC is because the plant didn’t have a certified operator, which is required by the DEP. Patterson serves in that capacity now, but with enough training, tenure and accreditation, some of the current workers could eventually fill that role. When PAWC first took over in February, a dozen of its workers regularly came to the plant to help, but they’ve been able to lower the amount of manpower as the East Dunkard employees learn the protocols and begin to stand on their own.
“The thing with PA American Water, we have such a large team with knowledge,” Patterson said. “The good thing is, the people who are here – the Dunkard team – want to make it right. Who do you call if you don’t have anyone to call? They are learning with us now.”
“It’s been a huge team effort,” Hardgrove added.
East Dunkard currently services customers in Dunkard and Greene townships, along with portions of Cumberland, Monongahela, Perry and Whiteley townships.
