Salisbury Township and the City of Bethlehem will undertake a feasibility study to determine the cost of rectifying the water hydrant pressure problem on the township’s east side.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners by consensus authorized Township Manager Randy Soriano to work with Bethlehem Director of Water and Sewer Departments Edward J. Boscola on the study.

“You have the consensus of the board to continue with that,” Salisbury Commissioner President James A. Brown told Soriano at the Sept. 22 township meeting.

Commissioners Joanne Ackerman and Debra Brinton agreed. Commissioner James Seagreaves and Commissioner Vice President James Martucci, Jr. were absent.

Low water hydrant pressure has been blamed for slowing down Eastern Salisbury Volunteer Fire Company firefighters in extinguishing at least three fires in the last year that destroyed structures on the east side.

Water in the township area in question is supplied by the Bethlehem Water Authority, which owns the water system and leases it to the city.

“We’ll look at the cost and see if a pumping station is cost-effective,” Soriano said to commissioners.

Soriano said he would look to possibly “share funds” to fix the water pressure problem. The goal, Soriano said, would be “to place a pumping station where there’s inadequate pressure.”

Township officials have already taken steps to bolster water supplies to fight fires on the township’s east side.

Salisbury Township Police Sgt. Donald Sabo, township fire marshal, has added a first-alarm response backup of fire tanker trucks, of 3,000-gallons capacity each, from Upper Saucon Township and Lower Milford Township, which will now respond as backup for fires in the east side’s First Ward.

The townships’ fire departments will respond on first-alarm and provide 6,000 gallons of water in the trucks.

Box alarms on the east side have been re-calibrated to call for the backup tanker trucks on the first alarm, Sabo said at the Aug. 25 township meeting.

Members of Eastern Salisbury Fire Company aired the hydrant pressure problem at the April 28 township meeting.

The City of Bethlehem provides for water treatment, rate setting, payment collection, metering, pipeline repairs and all other operation and maintenance of the system, according to the Bethlehem Water Authority website. Stephen Repasch, of Fountain Hill, is authority executive director.

The problem of east side hydrant pressure is thought to, in part, relate to east side topography, which between East Emmaus Avenue and East Susquehanna Street is roughly a trough bounded by Lehigh Mountain on the north and South Mountain on the south.

“Every time there’s a fire up there, there seems to be a problem with the water flow,” Eastern Salisbury Fire Company Chief Dave Tomcics said on behalf of a delegation of about eight firefighters at the April 28 township meeting.

In 2012, the Bethlehem Water Authority installed a new pumping station, estimated to cost $100,000, in the vicinity of Weil, Ritter, Summit and Wistar streets and Virginia Avenue on the township’s east side.

The pumping station is said to have improved water pressure for taking showers in residents’ homes, but didn’t boost hydrant pressure for fighting fires.