Bethlehem Moment: City Council’s historic water move

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Bethlehem Moment 15
November 6, 2019

Stephen Repasch
Executive Director, Bethlehem Authority

Bethlehem Moment: July 26, 1938

It was July 26, 1938, when the Bethlehem City Council created
the Bethlehem Municipal Water Authority, the first one ever
established in the Commonwealth. The first Authority members
included Mayor Pfieffle and the City Council who submitted the
application to the State for use of the waters in the Wild Creek
Watershed. Once that was approved, they applied for and
subsequently received funding from the federal government for
the construction of the Wild Creek Dam and Reservoir and
transmission pipeline.
In April of 1939 construction began, two tunnels were dug
through mountains in the foothills of Poconos, the dam was
built and starting filling, and in October 1941, the Wild Creek
Reservoir was dedicated and water began flowing to the
residents of the City.
And to this day the water still flows from the Wild Creek
Reservoir to the City and eleven surrounding municipalities and
is considered by many to be the best water in the region, if not
the entire state.
Cheers!

We’ll toast to that!

Published by The Bethlehem Gadfly

Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.

Published

2 thoughts on “Bethlehem Moment: City Council’s historic water move”

  1. The money-hungry BETHLEHEM WATER AUTHORITY is willing to allow 28 wind turbines on pristine land owned by the Bethlehem Water Authority. SHAME!

  2. I can’t believe people in Bethlehem drink bottled water. It must be the power of advertising.

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