Infrastructure
Join Us as We Celebrate Drinking Water Week!
May 3, 2021It’s time for one of our favorite events of the year: the American Water Works Association’s Drinking Water Week! Celebrated annually during the first full week of May, 2021’s observance runs today through Friday. Each day this week, we’ll be sharing important information and resources on Facebook and Twitter — even a photo contest and…
LCA Receives $2 Million Boost for Infrastructure Improvement Projects
January 22, 2021An LCA project to upgrade three critical water pumps welcomed a $2 million loan from the state this week. The low-cost financing was included in a much larger investment package aimed at infrastructure improvements to aging water systems across Pennsylvania. Projects spanning 11 counties will split $178 million in funding through the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment…
Can You Imagine a Day Without Water?
October 20, 2020This year, our country faced an enormous public health crisis from the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout this emergency, utility crews worked tirelessly behind the scenes, and water and wastewater systems kept the water flowing in homes, hospitals, and essential businesses. This crisis demonstrated the critical role that water and wastewater systems play in our communities, protecting…
No Matter How Hot, Opening a Hydrant Isn’t Cool
July 22, 20202020 has certainly brought its share of challenges, including beating the heat. Pandemic restrictions in place to keep the public safe have prevented most public pools and other swimming areas from opening. Frustrations are rising along with the temperature. Still, while it might be tempting to crack open a fire hydrant and cool off, DON’T….
On Oct. 23, Imagine a Day Without Water
October 22, 2019Can you imagine a day without water? No showers, no morning coffee, no working toilets — not even water for putting out fires. For some people, living without water is a daily reality. Yet most of us take for granted that when we turn on the tap, clean, drinkable water will flow out. That’s why…
Disinfection and Testing — the Final Steps in Wastewater Treatment
October 18, 2019Over the past several months, we’ve talked about why wastewater must be treated, and detailed each step in the treatment process at Allentown’s Kline’s Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. Now we’ve come to the final treatment step: disinfection, in which we use a chlorine solution to kill pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms before the wastewater is released into…
Tertiary Nitrification: How Ammonia Is Removed From Wastewater
October 3, 2019In our last post, we explained how plastic media filters remove contaminants during secondary treatment. Today we’re going to talk about the next level of treatment, which removes ammonia through a process called tertiary nitrification. As you can see from the picture above, it’s probably not what you imagine when you think of water treatment!…
Fire Hydrant Maintenance — Yup, We Do That, Too
August 23, 2019LCA crews have been hard at work this summer, flushing, painting and repairing hydrants throughout the city of Allentown. Maintaining hydrants is an important and ongoing task. Our crews inspect and test over 900 hydrants every year so that they’re in peak condition in case the fire department needs them. We look for leaks, check…
The Sludge Report: What Happens After Treatment?
June 19, 2019If you’re a regular visitor, you’ll know we’ve been doing a series of posts explaining how wastewater is treated. In our last post, we talked about why it needs to be treated — and what happens when it’s not. Today, we’re going to discuss one of the byproducts of treatment: sewage sludge. Sewage sludge is a…
Kline’s Island Gets New Electrical Substation as Part of Infrastructure Update
May 14, 2019The new Kline’s Island substation, above, includes provisions for additional power demands in the future. It’s National Infrastructure Week — a time to #BuildForTomorrow and “highlight the state of our nation’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, rail, ports, airports, water and sewer systems, the energy grid, telecoms, and more.” We usually think of water infrastructure…