Aqua Pennsylvania Cuts Ribbon on State-of-the-Art Environmental Laboratory
July 22 2021 - 3:38PM
Business Wire
Aqua Pennsylvania, an Essential Utilities company, today
celebrated the official opening of its high-tech environmental
laboratory with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The 14,700-square-foot
laboratory is more than double the size of the previous lab that
served the company for more than 70 years. This investment will
help Aqua adapt to the ever-changing water quality regulatory
environment to better serve customers.
“For 135 years, our company has focused on delivering
high-quality water to our communities and ensuring we are doing our
due diligence to protect public health,” said Essential Utilities
Chairman and CEO Christopher Franklin. “The opening of this
state-of-the-art laboratory at our headquarters in Bryn Mawr is the
latest chapter in our long history of safeguarding our customers’
access to safe and reliable drinking water.”
The new lab employs 19 people: 13 chemists and microbiologists
who conduct daily water sample tests and 6 other professionals who
manage and conduct routine quality assurance tests and provide
administrative support. Currently, laboratory employees perform
about 90,000 water quality tests a year. The lab is named for a
longtime Aqua employee, William C. Ross, who attended the event.
Ross retired in 2018 as Aqua’s senior vice president of engineering
and environmental affairs.
Aqua’s laboratory is certified by the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency,
the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and test results are
accepted by each state for compliance testing.
“As science evolves and technology advances, we need to adapt
and change to continue to be efficient and effective with our water
treatment process and our understanding of emerging contaminants,”
said Essential Chief Environmental, Safety and Sustainability
Officer Christopher Crockett. “The new laboratory allows us to
continue to evolve, grow and keep up with the rapidly changing
developments in chemistry, microbiology and the environment. Our
team will be using advanced technology to better understand what
could be in drinking water and, in turn, better serve our
customers.”
Franklin, Crockett and Aqua Pennsylvania President Marc Lucca
were joined at the ceremony by Montgomery County Commissioners'
Vice Chair Ken Lawrence Jr., Lower Merion Township Commissioner
Scott Zelov, representatives from the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection, and employees who work in the
laboratory.
“It is an honor to officially open the new water quality
laboratory with our partners, distinguished guests and employees,”
said Lucca. “The dedicated employees who work in our lab help
ensure Aqua Pennsylvania is able to provide safe drinking water to
our customers and return clean wastewater to the environment. Their
work and our continued efforts to improve mean we will continue to
deliver safe water to the communities we serve and protect our
environment for years to come.”
About Aqua Pennsylvania
Aqua Pennsylvania is a subsidiary of Essential Utilities Inc.
and serves approximately 1.4 million people in 32 counties
throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information or follow Aqua on
Facebook at facebook.com/MyAquaAmerica and on Twitter at
@MyAquaAmerica.
About Essential Utilities
Essential is one of the largest publicly traded water,
wastewater and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving
approximately 5 million people across 10 states under the Aqua and
Peoples brands. Essential is committed to excellence in proactive
infrastructure investment, regulatory expertise, operational
efficiency and environmental stewardship. The company recognizes
the importance water and natural gas play in everyday life and is
proud to deliver safe, reliable services that contribute to the
quality of life in the communities it serves. For more information,
visit http://www.essential.co.
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Gretchen Toner 484.368.4816 Media@Essential.co
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