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Oquawka, IL – Galesburg's new water treatment plant just outside Oquawka will be online and ready to go within the next few days. That's the word from Galesburg Public Works director Larry Cox, who attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at the plant Friday.
Cox says crews began building the plant in March of 2008. Despite the ribbon cutting ceremony, there are still a few "small" things to work out before the plant can begin operating 24/7.
The facility will be able to produce about 12 million gallons of water per day, which will serve Galesburg, Abingdon, Knoxville, Little York and several dozen customers directly along the pipeline.
Cox says it's those customers along the pipeline that will notice the biggest change in water quality.
"The water will be much more clear, it won't have the iron and magnesium that's in the water," says Cox. "All that will be removed."
The introduction of a new plant will also introduce a new filtering system. At present, the water is obtained from a well field near Oquawka, heavily chlorinated, and sent via pipeline to Galesburg where it was treated.
But now, the filtering process will be done entirely in Oquawka and the finished product will be sent to Galesburg.
Cox says this will save money, and should add more life to the pipelines.
"After this process, we'll be filtering the water before we chlorinate," says Cox. "So we'll be able to use much less chlorine, and have less of a chance of chlorine gas building up in the pipeline and less corrosion on the pipe."
The entire project cost about $18 million, which was largely funded through two $10 million bond issues. The city will have the next 20 years to pay them off at an interest rate between 4.5 and 5 percent.