Tarentum’s popular spray park will operate under shorter hours this summer while the borough maneuvers through a multimillion-dollar water system overhaul.
The park along First Avenue will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. – about three hours less than usual.
“This adjustment is intended to ensure we maintain adequate water levels for normal operations, particularly overnight,” Borough Manager Dwight Boddorf said.
Boddorf will have discretion to extend park hours on exceptionally hot days.
The site uses a significant volume of water — about 11,700 gallons a day in August.
There is no recirculation system.
Last year, the park used about 996,000 gallons of water, an amount equal to nearly one full day of typical water plant production.
Boddorf said plant operators have reported difficulty recovering tank levels by the end of the day. On the highest-demand days, tank levels can end at night about 90,000 gallons short of the full threshold, which reduces operational margin and strains the system.
“While modest relative to total system volume, this demand occurs during the most constrained operating window,” Boddorf said.
Adjusting park hours is a temporary move while a new million-gallon tank is constructed over the next two years.
It is part of the borough’s long-range, multimillion-dollar plan to rectify an aging water distribution system.
Reduced hours are expected to save about 3,500 gallons of water a day, improving stability and giving plant operators margin without pushing the plant toward its limits.
It also improves tank recovery potential later in the day.
New hours won’t solve capacity issues, but they will lessen the community impact by maintaining late-morning access for younger children and daycare groups, Boddorf said.
“Council worked to balance the operational needs of the water system with the community benefit of the park,” he said.
