Dilliner plant celebrates success
Garrett Neese
Inside Pennsylvania American Water’s water treatment plant in Dilliner, a dry erase board told the story of the past 16 months.
On the right side was a statistic: Since PAWC took receivership of the troubled plant in February 2024, workers had found and repaired 84 leaks that had cost more than 18 million gallons of water.
In the lower middle portion of the board sat the current list of complaints about leaks or brown water for workers to chase down.
It was blank.
“These guys fixed three, four leaks a day,” said Tim Berdar, senior superintendent of field operations for PAWC. “We were finding leaks and fixing leaks, so a lot of kudos to these guys. And we did a group effort. We made it happen.”
American Water officials and staff hosted an event Thursday to showcase the changes in the plant and distribution operations, which it formally acquired from the East Dunkard Water Authority in April.
Steve DeFrank, chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said PAWC’s successful work at the plant could serve as a blueprint for improving operations at smaller facilities, which could benefit from economies of scale.
East Dunkard could also serve as a cautionary tale for systems that underinvest in their facilities, DeFrank said after the meeting.
Smaller systems that haven’t already invested will have trouble meeting compliance costs for filtering out “forever chemicals” such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which can pose health risks to consumers, DeFrank said. Though not as plentiful in western Pennsylvania, it can be commonly found in the eastern half of the state.
“With these small systems, particularly with public systems, you may have pressure from local officials that don’t want rates raised, and so what happens is a rate that the person is paying is actually below cost of service, and it’s costing them more to to deliver service to that person than they’re paying over,” DeFrank said.
That gap in services turns the system “upside down,” DeFrank said.
The East Dunkard Authority had tried to find the money for repairs, to no avail, said former board member Jerry Dorsey.
“I just want to thank Pennsylvania American for coming in, because they did a fantastic job,” he said. “And without them, I don’t think we’d have a water system. I think we’d have had to shut the power off.”
DeFrank pointed to one of the most glaring signs of dysfunction.
Out of every 100 gallons processed at the plant, 70 were lost through leaks before they ever made it to the customer. That number has since been cut in half.
The state Department of Environmental Protection had found more than 70 water quality violations at the plant in the year prior to PAWC taking over. Residents had frequently complained about discolored water, with some bringing suit against the East Dunkard Authority for health problems they believed were caused by the water.
In PAWC’s tenure, there have been no violations, said its president, Justin Ladner.
“What you’ve heard is the foundation being laid here,” he said. “It’s just that — it’s a foundation. We have a lot more work to do, but you see we’re in good hands.”
Over the next five years, PAWC plans to make another $16 million in improvements.
That could include plant upgrades and improvements in places such as the clarifying tank and the lagoon, said Tiffany Reed, senior manager of operations for PAWC. They will also be replacing 50- to 60-year-old mains to tamp down leaks even further, looking at areas that have been prone to breakage, the age of the pipe and the number of customers affected.
“We’ll generally start at the plant, work our way out to replace those mains, booster station upgrades, tank rehabilitation — a little bit of everything, really,” she said.