The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County yesterday renewed a contract with IUP for the school to continue conducting water and air testing at the Beaver Run Reservoir in Bell Township, which provides water to more than 130,000 people, mostly in northern Westmoreland County, and also in small portions of Indiana and Armstrong counties.
The Authority will pay IUP $133,000 for the quarterly testing, the results of which are posted on the university’s website (https://www.iup.edu/energy/research-initiatives/beaver-run-reservoir/). The agreement began with water quality monitoring in 2011, with air quality added in 2015, as the authority dealt with gas well drillers setting up within the dam’s property boundary.
In January, IUP was contracted again for additional monitoring after a gas well breach. The $100,000 cost for those extra tests will be forwarded to CNX Resources, which operates 55 gas wells on the property and was responsible for a drop in pressure that resulted in natural gas being discharged into the ground and water. The testing showed no abnormalities and no issues, and testing by CNX also came up clean.
IUP’s testing is done by students led by faculty members Brian Okey of the Geography and Regional Planning Department and by Nathan McElroy of the Chemistry Department.
