The big picture
The new plant will be located across from the city’s plant on Corporate Drive and will initially be capable of handling 1 million gallons of water per day, or MGD, according to city documents.
That will be paired with the city’s existing plant, which is capable of 0.5 MGD, making the two plants capable of handling 1.5 MGD in total, documents show.
The long-term plan calls for continuing to expand the new facility over time, eventually up to 4 MGD or 5 MGD, and at some point decommissioning the existing plant, Mayor Dan Davis confirmed May 22.
Davis said it is unclear exactly when work will begin, but officials expect it to start at some point in the summer when the contract for the project is signed. Once work starts, officials with CSA Construction Inc., which was awarded the bid, said they expect it to take 30 months to build-out.
The plant will service the central and eastern part of the city, officials said in a September presentation.
Diving in deeper
The city had earmarked $40 million in bonds for a new treatment plant, meaning the final total had to be at or below that amount, City Manager Dan Johnson said at the May 20 meeting. As a result, some items were modified, such as the lift station planned for the facility.
The project has been in the works for a while, with design dating back as far as three years ago, Johnson said. In September, officials pointed to the city’s growing population—which data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows more than doubled from 2012 to 2022—as a reason for why the project was needed.
Projections from the September presentation showed in 2021 the city’s wastewater flow was 2.1 MGD. That number is expected to increase to 4.7 MGD by 2026, and 6.3 MGD by 2031.
In that same time period, wastewater single-family connections were expected to almost triple—from 6,783 to 19,841—by 2031, data shows.
What they’re saying
No residents spoke at the meeting on the item, but Davis did bring up resident concerns he had heard from those with homes near the proposed site. Concerns were mainly tied to light pollution from the facility, noise and smell.
Officials with CSA said the plant will have an odor control system built in that will capture foul smells from the facility and clean them. Much of the facility’s noise will also come from devices that will be placed inside the plant.
What else?
The plant will be powered by natural gas and use ultraviolet light to clean water being sent out of the system, officials at the meeting said. Johnson clarified the ultraviolet lights would not be used to clean the water being sent back into the system.
