The City of Lebanon Authority’s (CoLA) board approved a liability release agreement Monday for any issues with water pressure or flow with a regional beverage planned for the Lebanon Valley Business Park — although that business has not formally requested water.
ACCB Harrisburg RE LLC, a subsidiary of ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages, is planning to build a warehouse and distribution center in the park, said CoLA executive director Jon Beers.
“Our understanding is that it will be a warehouse for now,” he told the board. “In the future, if this becomes a bigger market for them, it could expand to bottling.”
How much water ACCB Harrisburg needs is unclear. Beers said the company asked several months ago if CoLA had capacity to provide 20,000 gallons per day (gpd).
“That’s high for a warehouse,” said Beers, who has asked for confirmation from ACCB Harrisburg of that amount. “They haven’t come back to us in the last three to four months.”
By comparison, the Walmart distribution center off Route 72 uses 4,000 gpd, Beers said in an email.
With the agreement, ACCB Harrisburg releases CoLA of liability should there be issues with water pressure and flow.
Beers said that when the business park was designed in the late 1980s, engineers determined that its location and distance from the water system posed a potential problem for water pressure and flow. At eight miles from CoLA’s water plant, the park is the most remote customer, Beers said.
The Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corp. built a booster station at the park to increase water flow and pressure, and ensure adequate water availability for businesses and fire protection.
Beers also updated the board on CoLA’s ongoing efforts to identify lead service lines throughout its distribution system as mandated by the EPA. The authority has reached out to 155 customers who likely have lead service lines to coordinate collection of water samples.
To date, four have agreed to the sampling, said Beers, who expects additional responses to the request in the next month.
CoLA has been testing service lines for lead for between 15 and 20 years and at various locations throughout the distribution system, Beers said in an email. No issues with lead were ever found, he has said.
This year’s testing will be more targeted to service lines the authority suspects are lead. Additionally, the testing must follow a strict protocol that sets out when the water sample must be taken and how it must be taken, Beers said.
CoLA anticipates it will test a minimum of 30 households.
Lead pipes have been known to leach lead particles into drinking water. Lead-contaminated drinking water is harmful to children, pregnant women and adults with compromised health. The effects of lead poisoning are not reversible.
In other business, the board learned that upgrades and renovations to the authority’s wastewater treatment plant may not be completed in 2025. Final completion had been set for Dec. 6. The contractor has had delays caused by rocks at the site and weather, Frank DiScuillo, CoLA wastewater systems director, said.
The board approved payment of the following construction invoices related to that project:
- Pact Two LLC (general) – $978,975;
- Garden Spot Mechanical (plumbing) – $17,640;
- Garden Spot Electric (electric) – $87,750.
The City of Lebanon Authority Board meets at 2311 Ridgeview Road, Lebanon, on the second Monday of each month at 3 p.m. The next meeting will be Monday, April 14. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.
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