Plumbing in West Lebanon Township, PA

A township with its own wells

Most of the neighborhoods around Lebanon city drink City of Lebanon Authority water. West Lebanon Township, ZIP 17046, mostly does not. The township runs its own water system, pumping from two wells, with an emergency connection to the City of Lebanon Authority behind them.

For a homeowner that changes who to ask about the water and what the rules are. The township sets its own requirements for its customers, and the one most likely to touch your plumbing is backflow.

The backflow requirement

West Lebanon’s Backflow Protection Program requires customers to have backflow prevention devices. The device sits on the supply and stops water inside the house, from a boiler, a hose left in a bucket or a lawn system, from being drawn back into the township’s mains when pressure drops.

Like any valve, it wears. One that drips from its relief port, leaks at the body or has been bypassed needs attention, and installing or replacing one is plumbing work. Tell us the device is part of the township program when you call.

What the service line inventory found

Every water system had to inventory its service lines, and West Lebanon published its list. Almost every line on it is copper, a few dozen are plastic, and no lead lines are listed. A small number of customer-side lines were recorded as galvanized steel, the material most worth replacing once it starts closing up.

So a service line letter is less likely here than in much of the county. Inside the house is another matter, because the homes are old.

Old, attached and close together

The township covers less than half a square mile between the city, North Lebanon Township and North Cornwall Township, and its housing is dense. About half the homes are rowhomes or twins, and roughly two thirds were built before 1960.

That shows up in the calls. Cast iron stacks rust rough and catch waste. Supply lines run along outside walls and freeze in a cold snap. And because the houses share walls, water from one side can appear on the other. The township treats the sewer lateral from each house to the main as the homeowner’s, so a backup that hits more than one fixture is usually yours to sort out, and sewer line repair is where that starts.