Beaver Falls Municipal Authority

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The Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, one of PMAA’s founding members, was established with an ordinance enacted by the City Council of Beaver Falls. Incorporated on July 3, 1940, the authority purchased the assets of the Beaver Valley Water Company for $4.3 million.  

In 1940, the authority had 135 miles of water mains, served 10,606 customers and had an average daily water production of 3.8 million gallons. By 2011, they almost doubled in size.  Currently, the system serves approximately 60 square miles of Beaver County and approximately 50,000 people.  The Authority currently serves 23 municipalities and maintains an emergency interconnection with the borough of Beaver Municipal Authority.

Currently, the authority has made many improvements and additions over the years.  Many improvements were made to both water treatment plants over the years.  Both water treatment facilities are conventional rapid sand/mixed media filtration plants, including chemical treatment, rapid mixing, flocculation/coagulation, primary/secondary settling, filtration, and disinfection, withdrawing their raw water supply from the Beaver River. In 1987, the authority placed into operation its Townsend Dam Hydroelectric Plant in New Brighton. In 1992, the Authority reconstructed its Eastvale water supply dam on the Beaver River to assure a constant head of river water to serve the plant. In 2001, the Authority brought on-line new sludge handling facilities for its Eastvale plant to comply with state regulatory requirements for the water plant. In 2005, the Authority brought on-line a new clearwell at its Eastvale plant to also comply with state regulatory requirements.

Often called “a small city with a big heart", Beaver Falls is a pleasant city located thirty-one miles northwest of Pittsburgh and nestled among the rolling, picturesque hills of Western Pennsylvania. Originally occupied by the Delaware Indians, who had relocated from the eastern part of the state, the Falls were now occupied by many who settled along the river to engage in trapping, exploring and seeking out their fortune.

Travellers would often stop in Beaver Falls while traversing Western Pennsylvania, since there were many modes of transportation through the area (railroad, highway, canal). The city was also linked to Ellwood City in 1914 by the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Railway, an interurban trolley line. The line closed on 15 June 1931.  The city is best known in fiction as the setting of the television situation comedy Mr. Belvedere.  The world's first recorded college basketball game occurred in the city on April 8, 1893 when the intramural team from Geneva College defeated the New Brighton YMCA.

Famous people from this area include: Papa John Creach a musician, violinist who played with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna; Jack Damaska, MLB player; Ernest P. Kline, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1979; Tony Lip, Actor Sopranos, Donnie Brasco; and Joe Namath, Hall of Fame AFL and NFL quarterback.