Water quality testing to continue at Beaver Run Reservoir in Bell Township

Water quality tests at the reservoir that supplies drinking water to about half of all Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County customers will continue for the next year.

Authority board members this week approved a new contract with Indiana University of Pennsylvania to collect samples and analyze the water at Beaver Run Reservoir in Bell. It provides water used by customers who live north of Route 30. The authority sells water to 122,000 customers in Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties.

The school will be paid $106,000 for the testing over the next year. Test results are posted on the authority’s website.

“This gives us a baseline for what’s out there and tells us where we’re at,” said authority manager Michael Kukura. “It’s important we have a third party out there to tell us what’s out there.”

The authority first contracted with IUP in 2011 for water testing at the reservoir and in 2015 added air quality testing at the 43 square mile site, which also hosts 54 natural gas wells. Authority board members are expected to renew a separate contract for emissions testing later this year.

Jack Ashton, the authority’s assistant manager, said the testing over the last decade revealed water quality has not been compromised because of the drilling.

“We haven’t seen any impact at the reservoir. That’s why we do these tests,” Ashton said.

Faculty and students will conduct 380 field tests on the property in the next year, including at least 95 stream water samples and 21 reservoir samples. Samples will be analyzed for contaminants, including chemicals that are byproducts of the drilling process.