Water source trends in the Little Lehigh Basin since the 1970s

Where do we draw the water used across the Little Lehigh Basin?

The graph below shows how our water sources have changed over time. Back in 1977, water users in the Little Lehigh Basin were using 30 million gallons a day, most of which came from the City of Allentown’s sources: the Little Lehigh adjacent to the water plant on Martin Luther King Blvd., and its two springs: Schantz Spring and Crystal Spring.

In 1977, LCA extracted about 2 million gallons a day from wells. Overall water usage steadily declined until about 2003, though LCA’s use of groundwater increased to nearly 7 million gallons a day from wells.

In 2010, a new interconnection between the LCA system and the City of Allentown’s system was commissioned, which allowed LCA to purchase water from the City. Though water usage in the LCA service area continued to increase, we halved our use of groundwater by using the City’s sources. Total water usage across the Little Lehigh Basin is still about 20% below the levels of the late 1970s.

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