A critical valve deep in Jim Thorpe’s West Side Water Treatment Plant has reached the end of its serviceable life and, according to officials, parts needed to fix it no longer exist.

Borough Council voted unanimously this month to approve a purchase order totaling $11,054 for the labor, materials and replacement of a 29-year-old altitude control valve at the plant.

The work is expected to be completed in a single day and was a budgeted item.

“Most of the reason is parts are no longer available and we need something we can service in the future,” Water Department Supervisor Dwayne Sterner said.

When asked by Council President Connor Rodgers to explain what the valve actually does, Sterner walked council through the mechanics of how it fits into the plant’s water supply system.

“It is piped off of a 1-million-gallon tank, and it supplies our clear well, which is 44,000 gallons of water,” Sterner said. “It controls the level in that tank, and the clear well is what feeds the pumps that supply the Heights (a section of town on the west side of Route 903).”

Beyond simply restoring a function the plant already had, the new valve opens a door the old one could not. Sterner said the replacement unit is designed to be integrated with the borough’s SCADA system, the computerized platform used to monitor and control water infrastructure remotely.