The hot, dry conditions continue to scorch the Lehigh Valley.
After one of the driest months of May the Lehigh Valley has ever seen, water levels are down. In fact, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) water flow map, every waterway in the Lehigh Valley is below where it should be for this time of year.
We’re not in a drought watch yet in the Lehigh Valley, but it might not be far off.
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“I suspect that we’re going to get to that point in the next few days, if not the next week,” said Stephen Repasch, the Executive Director of the Bethlehem Water Authority.
The City of Bethlehem’s drinking water comes from the Penn Forest and Wild Creek reservoirs, and Repasch said they’re both in pretty good shape.
“It is low for this time of year, because typically by this time of year we’re, this time last year we were at 100 percent of capacity, so it is trending downward, but we’re still in very, very good shape,” said Repasch.
The Lehigh County Authority also hasn’t issued a drought watch yet, but one of their streams, the Little Lehigh Creek, is extremely low. It’s lost more than 30 cubic feet per second of flow over the past month.
“We’re keeping an eye on things, and as conditions change we would be communicating with the public,” said Communications Director Susan Sampson.
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The Lehigh County Authority relies on three “trigger points” before declaring a Drought Watch: The Upper Macungie Park Quarry, The Lower Macungie Monitoring Well, and The Little Lehigh Creek.
The creek is the only one below normal levels right now, but a Drought Watch could be issued as early as next week if we continue to go without rainfall.
“In that phase, we’d be asking customers to voluntarily cut back on water use by about five percent,” said Sampson.
Before we get to that point, Sampson is asking people to watch their water usage anyway.
“Running your washing machine and appliances only when you have a full load, decreasing the amount of water that you’re using to water a lawn,” said Sampson.
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While the DEP has not issued any drought watches yet for any part of the state, the U.S. Drought Monitor says some parts of our region are already considered to be in a “moderate drought.”
That includes parts of Berks, Schuylkill, and Carbon counties.
Of the seven competitive states that both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, have a realistic shot at winning, Pennsylvania is the most populous and awards the most votes in the Electoral College, which in turn is used to select the overall winner of the election. read more
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate is set to hold a rally in Pennsylvania today, his fourth campaign stop in the state this month. Erie, located in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, will host the former president at 2 pm local time.
This rally comes one month after his running mate, US Senator JD Vance held a similar event in the same city. Trump has another rally scheduled in western Pennsylvania for October 5.
Pennsylvania has emerged as a crucial battleground state in the 2024 election, with many of Trump’s allies considering it the most important state to win. The state’s significance stems from its large population and the substantial number of electoral votes it awards, making it a critical factor in determining the overall winner of the election.
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In fact, among the seven competitive states that both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have a realistic chance of winning, Pennsylvania stands out as the most populous and electorally valuable.
Trump allies broadly believe that if the former president beats Harris there, he is likely to return to the White House. But if Trump loses to Harris in Pennsylvania, the vice president has the inside track, in their opinion.
In a reflection of the stakes, Harris and Trump have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ads in Pennsylvania in the months before the election, more than any other state in both gross and per capita terms.
Erie, the site of Trump’s rally, is a battleground inside a battleground. Erie County is one of two Pennsylvania counties that favored Trump in the 2016 election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton before favoring President Joe Biden against Trump in 2020.
Trump narrowly won the state and the election overall in 2016, before losing both in 2020.
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This time around, Pennsylvania is again competitive, according to surveys. Harris leads Trump by 1.6 percentage points in the state, according to an average of polls maintained by polling and analysis website FiveThirtyEight. That difference is well within almost all polls’ margin of error.
Trump’s next rally in Pennsylvania, on Oct. 5, will take place in Butler, about 100 miles (160 km) south of Erie. That town was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Trump in July. A bullet grazed the former president’s ear.
JD Vance crisscrosses battleground Pennsylvania at a rally in Newtown, Bucks County – CBS Philadelphia
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The vice presidential nominees are getting ready for Tuesday’s debate.
Meantime, Republican JD Vance is crisscrossing battleground Pennsylvania.
He held a rally in Newtown, Bucks County Saturday afternoon.
Earlier, he took part in a town hall in Monroeville, Allegheny County.
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