Aqua President Talks About Company's Past, Future and the Current Solar Initiative

Local residents have been curious about a large group of solar panels that were recently installed in a field near Route 23 and McAvoy Lane in Schuylkill Township.

It turns out the panels belong to Aqua Pennyslvania's Pickering Creek East water treatment plant, and will generate 1.4 megawatts of electricity that will power the plant.

Aqua Pennsylvania president Steve Tagert gave a talk at the on Tuesday evening, focusing on Aqua's long history in the Philadelphia region and its improvements in technology over the years. 

Tagert said that the solar field is similar to another one Aqua has installed locally.

"We built one at our Ingram's Mill plant [in Chester County, Pennsylvania] and it completely powers the plant during daylight hours," Tagert said. 

According to Aqua's website, the Ingram's Mill solar field produces 1.1 megawatts of electricity. The Pickering Creek plant's solar panels will produce 1.4 megawatts.

Aqua Pennsylvania has a long history in this area. It began as the Springfield Water Company in 1886, became Philadelphia Suburban Water in 1925, incorporated in 1968 and became Aqua Pennsylvania in 2004.

Aqua currently draws water from the Pickering, Perkiomen, Ironworks, Neshaminy and Crum Creeks, the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and several other spring locations.

Tagert also explained that Aqua is updating its plants to use much newer water filtration technologies.

"We are using plate settlers now in our plants," Tagert said.

Plate settlers are stainless steel plates that attract particulates in water, called floc, after the water has been treated with alum. The settlers sit at a 55 degree angle in the water tanks, and the collected particulate slides down to the bottom, where it is pumped into sludge tanks.

The settlers allow water to be cleaner when it goes through the filtration system and eliminates the need for large raw water lagoons on plant properties.

Aqua is also replacing 120 miles of water main pipes per year, upgrading the pipes to a type of cement-lined iron that is stronger and less breakable than the old cast iron pipes.

Schuylkill Township Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors and Heritage Center President Barbara Cohen said that the presentation idea came about when Aqua Pennsylvania came before the township board during the subdivision and land developemnt process.

Cohen said she thought the presentation would be interesting because Aqua was "fantastic to work with."