By EMMA GOSALVEZ

egosalvez@lockhaven.com

BELLEFONTE – Residents and visitors alike pass by it all the time when going through town or on their way to work. But what do they know about Bellefonte’s Big Spring?

It is typically covered in front of the pump house that is located at the edge of Talleyrand Park, but on Monday, Aug. 15, the cover to Big Spring was lifted, and for 24 hours, it could be seen in all its glory, which will not happen again for about another 20 years. This is due to environmental elements that determine the life expectancy of the cover, which is approximately 20 years, according to Frank “Buddy” Halderman, vice chairman of Bellefonte Area Industrial Development Authority and former Bellefonte Borough Council president.

In 1795, the town of Bellefonte was established around the Big Spring, which is known to be a phenomenal natural spring water source that is capable of producing approximately 15 million gallons of water on a daily basis.

“Without the Big Spring, Bellefonte would not be here today,” said Halderman. “Besides providing water to our residents, we supplied water to many industries that provided many jobs – Cerro/Titan Metals and Corning Glass Works to name a couple. We still provide water to surrounding townships that have several industries and their residents.”

Those townships include Spring and Benner townships, along with Milesburg Borough. Through the Big Spring, water is also supplied to Rockview prison, when it is needed, according to Halderman.

The customers of the Big Spring do not stop there.

“We also supply water to Coca-Cola, who bottles more that 33 million cases of our water a year and ships it up and down the East Coast,” Halderman said. “I was told once by their vice president of water bottling, that of the five bottling plants they have, the Big Spring’s water is the best quality.”

In 2014, the Big Spring’s water was named “Best Tasting Water” in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Rural Water Association. Nearby distillery Big Spring Spirits not only honors the spring in its name but also uses the spring’s water to blend their spirits, according to the distillery’s website.

On a daily basis, customers of the Big Spring use approximately 2 million gallons of its water, and whatever is not used goes out the overflow of the spring into Spring Creek, Halderman said. The borough also has the ability to provide several million gallons of the spring’s water to new customers in its service area.

The cover to the spring is a requirement as a result of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which states that if a drinking water source is groundwater, it has to be protected from surface contaminants, according to Halderman. The spring, which is classified as groundwater, was first covered around 1999, when Bellefonte Borough signed an agreement with the AquaPenn, the first owner of the Coca-Cola bottling plant. AquaPenn required that Bellefonte cover the Big Spring in order to be the supplier of its products.

With the cover on the spring, Bellefonte Borough installed a “seal” underneath the spring, which, Halderman explained, prevents underground contaminants from ever reaching the spring. In addition, the “seal” increased the flow of the Big Spring by capturing excess flow of water that had been leaving the spring’s basin.

How did the Big Spring operate back in the day and what is the process involved today, one might wonder.

It all started in the early 1800s, when a primitive pump house was built in order to pump water up to what is now known as Academy Hill in Bellefonte, according to Halderman. From there, water gravity would flow to customers of the Big Spring through a wooden piping system. In October 1879, the owner of the Big Spring at the time, Major William F. Reynolds, deeded the spring to Bellefonte Borough, and the rest is history.

Inside the current pump house are three large pumps that pull water from the Big Spring and push it into the current piping system, which leads to the reservoir and Hughes Street tank, according to Halderman. The water storage facilities are placed at higher elevations within the water distribution system in order to create water pressure.

Afterward, the water gravity will flow through water mains and then to customers’ taps, Halderman said.

The pump house is also where chlorine is added, as chlorine is a mandated disinfectant that is used primarily for the water that goes out into the distribution system. “The basic system has remained the same for over 200 years with modern updates added as needed or mandated,” Halderman added. “The capacity of the spring is about 8,000 gallons a minute year round, rain or drought, it is 77 feet by 62 feet, 8 inches and about 8 feet deep. The reservoir capacity is about 300,000 gallons and sits 196 feet above the spring.”