Hanover Borough awarded $500K grant to repair and upgrade water dam

Hanover Borough was awarded just over half-a-million dollars for repairs to a local dam, thanks to a grant from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

The $500,840 grant will go towards repairs and updates to the Lawrence Baker Sheppard Dam, located at Long Arm Reservoir, according to a news release by Hanover Borough. The repairs will primarily focus on the dam intake tower in the reservoir and will improve water capture as well as outflow during dry periods.

Long Arm Reservoir covers 225 acres of land and contains 1.6 billion gallons of water, according to Hanover Borough water department documents. It was built in the 1960s to add additional capacity to the borough's water system.

“These dollars for Hanover Borough will go a long way toward improving the water dam,” said state Rep. Kate Klunk in the news release, who assisted in the grant application process.

The project comes following recent repairs to Hanover's older dam, the Sheppard-Myers Dam, which cost $10.84 million.

More: With newly renovated Sheppard-Myers dam filled, Hanover lifts mandatory water restrictions

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission provided the grant to the borough as a Consumptive Use Mitigation Project grant, funded by fees paid to the commission through regulated programs.

The commission is a federal and interstate governmental agency that protects and manages the watersheds that make up the 27,500 square-mile Susquehanna River Basin, including the Hanover area.

Harrison Jones is the Hanover reporter for the Evening Sun. Reach him at hjones@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Hanover PA awarded grant to repair and upgrade water dam