The work happening along the Little Lehigh in the Spring Creek area is being done by Lehigh County Authority (LCA). LCA provides drinking and wastewater service to the area.

The focus is on the Western Lehigh Interceptor the main line of the system for our area. It’s owned, operated and maintained by LCA.

In brief summary, LCA constructed a parallel above ground pipe to temporarily transfer flow. That pipe is now complete. Next, they are working to camera the entire length of the line looking for structural deficiencies. Lastly, problem areas will be repaired. This major infrastructure work is very important. The entire system is aging and this is part of regular maintenance that must happen.

The township owns parts of the system also. Mostly within developments. On our end we’ve been aggressively addressing our oldest neighborhoods last few years budgeting and spending between $500-750,000 a year on the work.

This all relates to the question – “Where does it go when you flush?” Not really something folks think about too often. Well, (if your connected to the public system) it flows out your private lateral, into the public township system at or near the roadway and then out of your neighborhood and into the LCA interceptor which runs along the river. The interceptor runs along the Little Lehigh to the Klines Island Treatment plant in Allentown. Following the river allows gravity to help get the water to the plant. All this of course if you are connected to the public system. Some folks have on lot treatment.

Remember, if on the public system homeowners own and are responsible for the lateral connection from homes to the street. It’s important to maintain this properly.

System wide, problems aren’t necessarily pipes leaking out, but rather stormwater infiltrating in. This can result in outflows and problems at the treatment plant in Allentown at Klines island.

Hope this is helpful. Not the most glamorous of topics but critically important nonetheless. Many communities neglect underground systems until there are major problems. With our capital improvement plan we stay well ahead of things with an aggresive maintanance schedule. To learn more I wrote this post a few years ago.