The water conservation alert in the portion of Lafayette
Township affected by the Big Shanty pump station malfunction
Wednesday night was lifted at 8 a.m. Sunday.

Bradford City Water Authority Executive Director Kim Benjamin
said Sunday afternoon that water storage levels had returned to
normal over the weekend, and the pump station located on Big Shanty
Road was also operating normally.

There is a 500,000-gallon ground level tank at the Federal
Correctional Institution-McKean; a 200,000-gallon elevated tank in
the general residential area near the prison; and a 400,000-gallon
tank located at Bradford Regional Airport.

Benjamin told The Era Friday the pump had been repaired, but
said at that point the next 24 to 36 hours were crucial in
restoring water levels to the three tanks in that area. As such, he
had asked customers serviced by the pump to conserve water over the
weekend while the pump ran continuously.

“The water conservation efforts of FCI-McKean played a big part
in our ability” to restore service, Benjamin said, adding there
were pressure issues over the last few days in that area, but very
few instances of a customer being completely without water.

FCI-McKean is one of the authority’s largest customers for water
usage.

At the height of the problem, nearly 80 customers were affected
by the pump malfunction. An electrical malfunction caused the
primary system at the pump station to go down, but when service was
switched to the back-up system, it failed due to a bad bearing.

Benjamin said Friday, and confirmed Sunday, the back-up system
would be repaired and re-installed by the middle of this week.