Local government officials, construction representatives, and business and school leaders break ground on Mount Sterling’s new water treatment plant.
(Posted April 22, 2016)
By Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor
By next summer, a new water treatment plant will be up and running in Mount Sterling.
Local government officials, construction representatives, and business leaders broke ground on the $6.7 million project in a ceremony held April 14. The plant is being built on the west side of State Route 207, across from the Wingate Place subdivision.
Mayor Lowell Anderson described the project as one that will benefit not only current residents, but also “generations yet unseen.”
The new plant will be capable of producing 864,000 gallons of potable water per day through filtration and reverse osmosis softening. The facility will include a main process room, building offices, employee facilities, a process laboratory, and a maintenance garage.
As for the need for a new plant, John Martin, village administrator, said Mount Sterling’s water needs are outstripping the current plant’s capabilities. He also said the current facility’s technology is outdated by over 10 years, and repairs are difficult because parts are now hard to find. The village recently invested $46,000 in the old plant to get by until the new one is built.
The new plant will draw groundwater from the new wellfield at the village park. The process area will be integrated into a computerized management system with a main terminal. The terminal will gather the pertinent information from the plant and town tanks, displaying it in an easy-to-read program for improved operations and response. This will allow the operator to more easily identify tasks that need to be performed to provide the village with the highest quality water.
The storage provided by the village’s water towers and an on-site generator capable of running the plant will continue to service the village in the event of a power outage.
Martin noted that the new plant will have enough pressure and volume to service a five-mile radius, reaching as far as State Route 56 and I-71.
“This is a much needed facility for the village of Mount Sterling,” said Dave Joslin of Jay-Car Construction, the general contractor for the project.
IBI Group of Westerville is providing engineering expertise.
“This is the largest project we have worked with the village on,” said Kevin Wood of IBI Group. Most recently, IBI led work on Mount Sterling’s wastewater treatment plant.
The village is financing the plant’s construction through a discounted, low-interest 30-year construction loan from the Ohio Water Development Authority. The projected completion date for the facility is July 2017.
