Jim Thorpe Borough’s east side water system has been operating without a backup water supply. Council voted Thursday night to begin fixing that.

The governing body unanimously approved professional engineering services for a new well at the east side water treatment plant, launching a multi-year project that officials said could ultimately cost the borough as much as $750,000, though the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will cover significant engineering and professional consulting costs along the way.

“This is a sorely needed project,” Council Vice-President Mike Yeastedt said before making the motion to move forward. “We need a backup water supply for the east side.”

The project had been discussed at council’s April 2 workshop, where questions about cost, timing and the borough’s borrowing capacity were central to the debate. By Thursday, Borough Manager Maureen Sterner reported that some of those questions had been resolved.

“We looked back at the borrowing base that was available with the Center Avenue water main project, and the borrowing base is fine,” Sterner said. “We would have over a million dollars, probably closer to $5 million, that we have available for borrowing if we needed to.”

Sterner also reported that DEP had confirmed it could process the well project simultaneously with related water department asset management and standard operating procedure work.

The partnership with DEP will shift a substantial share of the early costs away from the borough. DEP, Sterner said at the workshop, will pay professionals to identify potential drilling locations, dig test pits and drill test wells. If water sampling results are acceptable, DEP professionals will then complete a pre-drilling plan and an aquifer testing plan. Once that plan is approved, DEP will convert the test well to a production well and complete the design for construction and connection to the borough’s existing system.

The borough’s financial obligations would come at several specific points in the process — including sampling tests, well testing, source sampling and, most significantly, construction. Sterner said at the workshop that an estimate from DEP put the total construction cost at approximately $750,000 for a well connected to an existing distribution system, plus additional permitting and testing fees.

Yeastedt cautioned at the workshop that the figure represented a broad estimate, not a final cost.

“This isn’t set in stone — this would be a worst-case scenario,” he said, noting that the estimate included a 30% contingency and assumed construction of a full well house with controls, flow meters, chlorine treatment and backup power generation. If the new well could be drilled close to the existing control building, Yeastedt added, several of those major cost items might not be necessary.

Water Supervisor Dwayne Sterner described the first step Thursday that would set the project’s cost trajectory.

“The first step would be contracting with a geologist to come in and study the land,” Sterner said. “We’re hoping that it’ll be relatively the same area. The closer it is to the proximity of the control building now is going to save us money — additional piping if it’s further away, or even treatment.”

The project is expected to take three to four years from start to finish, officials said at the workshop.

Council President Connor Rodgers thanked borough staff Thursday for identifying a DEP program that would provide water department asset management and standard operating procedure assistance at no cost to the borough.

“That’s a big savings to the borough,” he said.