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| Middle Atlantic States | Pennsylvania | Emmaus |
Emmaus was incorporated as a borough as 1859. From 1759 to 1830, the settlement's name was spelled Emmaus, and until 1938 the community used the Pennsylvania Dutch spelling of the name, Emaus. The name was changed back to Emmaus in 1948.
The borough built a gravity water system that began service in 1871,
The Mountain Water Company was incorporated on May 24, 1891 to serve Upper Milford Township. The borough annexed part of Upper Milford Township and came into conflict with the company.
The borough bought the water company in 1929 and in 2007 sold the assets outside the borough boundaries to the Lehigh Valley Authority.
Water is provided by the Borough of Emmaus.
References
1888 "Emaus,"
from Manual of American Water Works,
Volume 1.
1890 "Emaus," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 2.
1891 "Emaus," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 3.
1897 "Emaus," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 4.
1908 Fire
and Water Engineering 44:377 (December 9, 1908)
The court has granted the Mountain Water company the right to go ahead and
lay water pipes and make other necessary arrangements for the introduction
of water into the borough of Emaus, Pa. The borough had passed an
ordinance, which the plaintiff held to be unconstitutional, restricting
the laying of pipes and fixtures and providing rules, conditions and
penalties for violating these restrictions. The court points out that
controversy had “narrowed down to one part of the ordinance—namely, that
which provides that no rights and privileges be granted said Mountain
Water company to lay pipe and fixtures on any streets, lanes or alleys in
said territory until the same are regularly adopted, located and opened by
ordinance and graded to the required grade under the rules and regulations
of the borough. The water company has certain chartered rights. It had the
authority given by the State of Pennsylvania to supply water to the
inhabitants of the township of Upper Milford. The territorial limits for
the exercise of its chartered rights are the confines of the township of
Upper Milford as it existed at the time the certificate of incorporation
was recorded. Within these limits it could do for the purpose of its
incorporation without let or hindrance from any one, except when
individual rights were affected. When the borough of Emaus annexed a
certain portion of the township, it obtained by such annexation power to
regulate the operations of the water company, so far as the welfare of the
borough reasonably demanded. They could not prohibit the exercise of the
rights of the water company. Now, if we examine the section in question,
we find that its provisions are virtually a prohibition. The water company
cannot lay pipes within said annexed territory, except upon streets which
are regularly adopted, located and opened by ordinance and graded to the
required grade. This is certainly a hard regulation and very unreasonable.
What right of the borough is to be preserved by any such ordinance? Why
must the water company wait to supply houses along an ungraded street
until the borough sees fit to have the street graded ?”
2007 Application
of the Borough of Emmaus for approval to transfer certain
assets and customers located outside ofthe Borough limits to
Lehigh County Authority and for the Borough to abandon providing
water service to the public outside of the Borough limits in Upper
Milford, Salisbury and Lower Macungie Townships,
Lehigh County, PA. January 26, 2007.
The Borough of Emmaus began providing water service to its residents in
1929 following the purchase ofthe Mountain Water Company, a
privately owned utility which had been serving residents ofthe
Borough for some years prior. The Borough's service
territory has since been expanded on several
occasions to include areas in Upper Milford, Salisbury,
and Lower Macungie Townships (Townships). In addition to the
customers located within the Borough's corporate limits,
service is also currently provided to 413 extraterritorial customers
who are located in the Townships
© 2019 Morris A. Pierce