Cape Girardeau City Council questions new water plant plan

The Cape Girardeau City Council had multiple questions regarding MI2 operating system’s presentation Monday, July 15, regarding the feasibility of a new well.

The cost of the first phase of the agreement would be $1.27 million, with $990,00 of that going partly to drill a test well to find different source water. In a May Southeast Missourian article, Alliance Water Resources local manager JJ Ridings said there was something dissipating the chlorine being put in the water.

Crawford, Murphy and Tilly (CMT) Inc.’s Amanda Withers clarified that their study, done three or four years ago, never looked at the wells. She said they assumed the water sources were fine because nothing was said to be wrong with them at the time.

Withers said while they don't know if there is better source water, they do know there are deep aquifers in the area.

CMT senior project manager Bill Brown said there are some high-producing wells in the area.

“(The) City of Jackson has got some high-producing wells about 1,400 feet and a couple of the public water supply districts at about 1,600 feet,” Brown said. “I spoke for the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) and they are not sure if that aquifer extends all the way into Cape (Girardeau). And what they would want you to do is do a site-specific survey, and they would come in and work with your engineers and try to find out the feasibility of new wells.”

MI2 partner and Red Letter Communications Inc. CEO Jim Riley said while it is a test to see if they will find better water, their savings in operating costs could be “significant.” He said it isn’t guaranteed they will find better water, but it would be worth the investment.

Ward 4 councilman David Cantrell asked the presenters what would happen to the old water plant if they were to build a new one. Withers said it would most likely be abandoned, but they would try to use the new lime-softening equipment and reuse some as office space.

Ward 3 councilman Nate Thomas asked if MI2 couldn’t find better source water, would that “blow up” their plan?

Riley said they could stay with the existing wells and design a plant that would suit their current water source while eliminating the costs of a new wellfield. He said part of the premise of their plan is to lower operating costs.

“The new plant does some of that just by the fact that it's a new plant, modern technologies and so forth,” Riley said.

Mayor Stacy Kinder asked since they would already be investing $9 million into the old plant with their new lime system, filter gallery and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) improvements, would that become obsolete if they build a new plant? Withers said while they couldn’t use the parts of the filter gallery, they could use the lime system and, while she is not entirely sure, they could use the improved SCADA system.

In the proposal, the new plant would be constructed by the old one. Kinder asked if the presenters knew what the land is identified as in that area. Withers said she knows the city owns some existing land around the current plant, but she doesn’t know what the zoning looks like on the land.

MI2 CEO Paul Mckee clarified that they would like to find the wells to drill where the new plant would be, but wherever they drill is where they would put the new wells since they don’t want a large distance between the new plant and wells. McKee said if they could find a place to have new wells, they wouldn’t spend the money specified for the wells and it would come back to the city.

Ward 5 councilman Rhett Pierce asked the presenters why CMT didn’t look into the possibility of a new plant in the first place.

Withers said they originally thought it would have been too expensive but, after further inspection, it cost less than they originally thought.

No official decisions on the proposal were made at the meeting