ANDERSON — The Lafayette Water Treatment plant has outlived its life expectancy by 20 years and the city of Anderson is in the process of constructing a new $9.3 million facility.
Bob Curry with Curry & Associates said Friday during a groundbreaking ceremony that the plant constructed in 1968 is in need of technology upgrades.
The existing plant will be decommissioned and eventually demolished.
Neal McKee, superintendent of the Anderson Water Department, said the new water treatment plant is one of several infrastructure projects being undertaken by the city of Anderson.
He said the new water mains have been installed in the Homewood Addition, two of four new wells have been constructed in the Lafayette Well Field and upgrades are being planned for the Wheeler Avenue treatment plant.
McKee said the new plant, which is expected to be completed in the next year, will increase the treatment capacity from eight million gallons per day to 10 million gallons per day and can be expanded to 12 million gallons daily in the future.
Currently, between the Lafayette and Wheeler Avenue plants, the city can treat 13 million gallons of water on a daily basis. The new plant will increase that to 15 million to 17 million gallons, he said.
“This is a new beginning for Anderson and the Water Department,” McKee said. “It takes a tremendous amount of effort to maintain and operate the system. Water mains don’t normally break on a warm day, it happens at night and in the cold.”
The new plant will also have storage for 600,000 gallons of water.
“Providing clean and safe water is an essential public service for residents, fire protection and attracting new businesses,” McKee said.
Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. said the new plant will be more effective in providing clean, safe water to the community.
Broderick said it was important for the city to have a new water treatment plant with the latest technology to operate more cost efficiently.
During the past two years, the city has upgraded the storage tanks at Fairview Park and on 67th Street.
“Two years ago we didn’t have a water superintendent,” Broderick said. “Neal (McKee) was working on a contract and we decided there was a need for a full-time superintendent. We started looking at new ideas for infrastructure improvements.”
Curry said modifications recommended by McKee lowered the cost of the new plant from $9.7 million.
The Anderson Board of Public Works recently awarded a $9.3 million contract to Indianapolis construction company F.A. Wilhem Construction Co.
The engineer’s estimate of the cost of the project was $8.6 million.
Funding for the plant is coming from a $14.2 million bond the Anderson City Council approved in 2016.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved the bond when it approved in 2015 a two-year phased-in 47 percent rate increase for the city’s water utility.
The monthly charge for the average residential customer, including a fire protection surcharge, increased from $18.87 to $22.98 in 2015 and climbed to $27.84 in 2016.