Treating water

When Cape Girardeau residents began using 2 million more gallons of water a day last summer, employees at the city's water treatment plant didn't panic.

There weren't any pleas for water conservation or concerns that the supply would dwindle.

Cape Girardeau had already invested in an improved water treatment facility that could easily handle the increased demands.

City officials recently dedicated that renovated facility and held an open house for the public.

With the expanded water plant on the north side of town and a secondary plant on South Sprigg Street, the city can pump more than 10 million gallons of treated water a day.

The expanded water plant replaced the city's 73-year-old water treatment system and filters out hard minerals and softens the water in the process. The project involved new wells and expanding the existing plant where the water is filtered and treated. The wells produce about 65 percent of the city's water supply. The rest comes from the river.

The entire project was funded by a bond issue being retired from a quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1996. Although engineering and construction difficulties delayed completion of the water treatment plant well over a year, Cape Girardeau residents were never without water.

There's nothing glamorous about a water treatment plant, but it's a necessity that we tend to take for granted. Cape Girardeau officials were forward-thinking when they opted to make improvements to the water plant before a crisis existed.