On Thursday, August 17th, the Lancaster County Commissioners presented a check in the amount of $127,123 to the Ephrata Borough Authority through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for Water, Sewer and Stormwater projects. The funding will go towards upgrading the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and replacing the Rotomat screening unit at one of their Wastewater Treatment Plants. ARPA funding for this project was approved by the Lancaster County Commissioners at the December 21st, 2022, meeting.
The Ephrata Borough Authority serves six municipalities in Northeast Lancaster County. The Authority has been working on system wide upgrades across their two plants. The funding provided by the county will go towards the final phase of those upgrades by replacing the currently outdated SCADA system and the Rotomat screening unit in the second plant. Once completed, the SCADA system will be linked to the Authority’s other plant providing region wide improvement in monitoring the wastewater entering and leaving the system. By replacing the screening unit, the Authority will improve the effect of discharge water once it leaves the plant by better filtering out objects such as rags, paper, plastics and metals. Through both upgrades the Authority anticipates a better more efficient and effective service system for processing and discharging wastewater.