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BEAVER BOROUGH MUNICIPAL AUTHORITY

The Authority was created specifically to administer the water supply and sewage treatment problems of the Borough. It was chartered by an Act of the Beaver Borough Council on December 11, 1956. This became necessary when the Federal and State Governments passed the "Clean Streams Act" in 1943. This Act remained dormant, however, because World War 11 intervened and only after its termination was the proper machinery created to implement it. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitary Commission was created and approved by Congress, composed of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and all municipalities along the Ohio River were ordered to comply with the law.

The original members of the Authority were: H.K. Najarian, Donald 0. Strother, Fred 0. Schleiter, Fred J. Morrow and James S. Strouss.

According to the Beaver Borough Municipal Authority in a letter mailed to all residents of the borough, "a survey was conducted by the Woman's Club of Beaver of the complete residential section of the town in an effort to establish an equitable charge for sewage treatment services. This survey disclosed the fact there are 2,002 residential units within the borough. It further disclosed the average number of persons per family, the number of bathrooms per family, the number of laundry trays per family, the number of automatic washers per family, the number of water softeners per family, the number of kitchen units and garbage disposals, all of which affect the amount of water used and, consequently, the amount of sewage produced. A like survey was later conducted of the different mercantile and business establishments ......

This interesting survey provided the above basic information upon which the the Authority was able to determine the water and sewage charges.

The Borough of Beaver had supplied water to its residents, free of charge, ever since the incorporation of the town in 1802. No water meters were ever installed in the borough limits. In 1957-58 a "Beaver Borough Municipal Authority" was created by an Act of the Council and in 1967 the "Water Works" that sees to the procurement and distribution of the water and the maintenance of the entire facilities was turned over to the Authority to administer. In 1967 the Authority introduced a minimum service charge to all resident-users of water on a perkitchen unit system. The charge was $2.00 per month per unit. This amount was raised to $3.00 on January 1, 1969.

Returning once more to the water supply, we learned that by 1946 the third power-driven pumping station was constructed adjacent to the old one with three powerful pumps. The change was necessitated by the rise of the level of the river by eleven feet as the result of the building of Montgomery Dam near Ohioview by the Corps of Army Engineers, These pumps have the capacity of 1,000,000 gallons of water per day and are expected to last for forty years. The entire installation cost the Borough $100,000. The pumps reach a depth of 67 feet, well below the bed of the Ohio River.

Geologists tell us that there exists a thick, hard, rocky layer that separates the bed of the visible river from a subterranean river below. It is that river that supplies water to Beaver residents. This system is known as "Artesian" and is so designated when the shaft of the well penetrates through an impervious layer into a water-bearing stratum.

In order to have enough water to meet any emergency such as a fire (often with more than one occurring at the same time), a breakdown in the lines or pumps, excessive use of water during the summer months for lawns and gardens, a sudden increase of population, etc., an open reservoir was built in 1898 on the top of the hill above Beaver Street with a capacity of 900,000 gallons of reserve water. It served its purpose for over 70 years and it was no longer adequate for the needs of the town. Time and the elements combined to make that reservoir obsolete and it was replaced in 1971 by a new and larger one with a capacity of 2,000,000 gallons and at a cost of $251,00.