Funding sought for Lake Hauto’s hydrant system

Hopefully the third time will be the charm for the Lansford-Coaldale Joint Water Authority, which is trying to secure funding to upgrade Lake Hauto’s fire hydrant system.

During the Carbon County Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday, Ivan O. Meixell outlined a letter of review by the commission in support of the water authority’s grant application.

The authority is applying for a state Department of Conservation and Economic Development Commonwealth Financing Authority Small Water and Sewer Funding grant to cover approximately 85 percent of the cost of the project. The project is estimated at $496,550 based on the preliminary construction breakdown in October.

According to the letter sent to the planning commission on Nov. 11, just two days before an early morning fire at a home in the private development that gutted a bi-level, the applicant, Systems Design Engineering Inc., representing the water authority, states that funding is being requested to assist the Lansford-Coaldale Joint Water Authority in replacing approximately 2,400 feet of 6-inch pipe with new 8-inch pipe and replacing 19 existing fire hydrants and 6-inch pipe from the hydrants along Lake Drive.

“This project will help improve the water flow in and along Lake Drive within the Lake Hauto area water system that serves a portion of Nesquehoning Borough and a portion of Rush Township and will also help improve fire flows and fire protection to address concerns raised by local officials,” the engineer writes.

On Wednesday, Nesquehoning Borough Council also approved a letter of support for this project.

This is the third time the joint water authority has applied to DCED for funding for the project. The previous two attempts, in October 2016 and February 2018 were not successful.

The issue of insufficient fire protection in the private lakeside community arose in October 2015 when Nesquehoning Hose Company fire Chief John McArdle addressed borough council about the area fire companies not being able to use the fire hydrants in Lake Hauto.

At that meeting, McArdle said that the hydrants around the lake, which the borough pays a rental fee for from the water authority, are not usable by fire departments because the lines that were used to run them are too small, and if a fire company opens a hydrant, the residents around the lake lose water.

At that time, he said fire companies must either use their tanker trucks and then refill them at the dry hydrants or run approximately 3,000 feet of hose for relays to battle a fire in Lake Hauto.

In 2016, McArdle again addressed the issue with council, stressing that the issue is “very serious.”

In the last year, Lake Hauto has been the site of three fires that destroyed homes in the gated community.

In the February fire, a resident suffered third-degree burns; while two pets were lost in the Nov. 13 fire.