Earlier this week, the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County approved having IUP students and faculty continue to collect water samples at a reservoir that serves about half of its customers.
The $106,000 agreement will have IUP collect samples at the Beaver Run Reservoir for another year. The samples will be analyzed for the quality of the water at the 43 square-mile facility that also hosts 54 natural gas wells. This continues an agreement that has been in place between the university and the Municipal Authority since 2011 for water testing. IUP has also conducted emissions testing at the facility since 2015. An emission testing contract is expected to be approved later this year.
Over the last 10 years, the samples collected have shown that the gas well drilling has had no impact on the water quality. Test results are posted to the authority’s website.
