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.