New Sun Valley water system in place

After years of water outages and boil water advisories, Sun Valley residents can finally drink their water with confidence.

Aqua Pennsylvania celebrated the completion of a new water system with a ribbon-cutting outside the new water treatment building Tuesday morning.

This project was a group effort, and others who made it happen were also present, including State Sen. Mario Scavello, Rep. Jack Rader, and Chestnuthill Township chairman Carl Gould II and manager David Albright.

When the private company took over the water system two years ago, they quickly lifted the boil advisory which had been in place since 2016.

The company has now replaced the entire system, putting in 10,400 feet of pipes, a 10,000 gallon water storage tank, and a water treatment building equipped with a generator in case of power outage.

Aqua Pennsylvania will be responsible for maintenance of the system moving forward.

Both Scavello and Rader recognized the company for resolving the water crisis in this community.

“They saw a community in need and this company stepped forward,” Scavello said during the ceremony.

“This couldn’t have happened without them,” Rader said.

Scavello and Rader became aware of the crisis after they were elected four years ago, and they worked with others to secure the funding, Scavello said after the ceremony.

“This is not a moneymaker for them, I just want you to know that,” Scavello said. “This is just doing the right thing for the community in need, and they need to be recognized for it.”

“This (system) is state of the art, there’s rich communities that don’t have a system like this,” Scavello added.

Rader said that when he first became aware of the water crisis in Sun Valley he thought, “Wow, how are we going to make this work?”

“Everybody stepped up and made it happen, and that’s very unusual that a private company and public party could work together and accomplish a goal such as this,” Rader said. “You don’t see that every day.”

Aqua Pennsylvania President Marc Lucca described his company’s mission to provide water at a high standard of excellence.

“That’s why we help this community,” Lucca said. “It’s who we believe we are, it’s how we believe we should act as a company, and we believe this community will be much better for it.”

Funding was provided by a $1.6 million PENNVEST (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority) grant and $1.2 million in loans, as well as a $150,000 PHARE (Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement) grant to replace the service connection to individual homes, since Sun Valley residents can’t afford to make these repairs.

This is almost a $3 million project, Gould said after the ceremony.

“If this township had to take that on all on its own, it would have been probably three-fifths of our annual budget. It’s just huge, it’s absolutely huge.”