DNR announces funding for Cape Girardeau drinking water improvements

For 14 years, Cape Girardeau has been working on upgrading the water system to end reliance on the Mississippi River. On Friday, the last piece of the financing needed to complete the job arrived.

City officials joined Missouri Department of Natural Resources director Mark Templeton for a brief tour of the water treatment plant on East Cape Rock Drive and accepted a $2 million check. Half the money is a grant from stimulus funds approved by Congress last year. The other half is a loan, with $840,721 coming from stimulus funds as well and the remaining $159,729 coming from a state loan fund dedicated to water and sewer improvements.

"This is exactly the kind of project we look for when we are helping local communities," Templeton said.

The money, along with $1.7 million in local funds, will pay for the seven-mile pipeline that will bring water from new wells near the Diversion Channel. Construction of the pipeline started late in February, said Kevin Priester, water systems manager.

Cape Girardeau voters in 1996 passed a quarter-cent sales tax to fund the water system improvements. The project has increased the system's capacity from about 110 million gallons per month to 175 million gallons per month.

When the pipeline is complete, the city will stop drawing water from the Mississippi River except in emergencies. That will save the city more than $200,000 annually on treatment chemicals.

Mayor Jay Knudtson, who will leave office in April, said drinking water "is not considered real glamorous." But, he said, "nothing is more important than making sure we have safe drinking water."

The pipeline will run along South Kingshighway to Southern Expressway, where it will turn east until it reaches a spot near the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe railroad. It will then turn north, run through downtown and out to the treatment plant. The pipeline will bring water from four new wells completed last year. Each has a capacity of 1,800 gallons per minute.

The water plant on East Cape Rock Drive can deliver 7.6 million gallons per day, a capacity that could increase to 10.3 million gallons, Priester told Templeton during a tour. Along with the city's other treatment plant, the total capacity currently is just over 10 million gallons per day.

During the tour, Knudtson explained that sinkholes along South Sprigg Street not only delayed and altered the city's plans for the new wells and pipeline but have upset the city's plans for upgrading wastewater treatment.

"It has really caused us to make an immediate shift in planning," Knudtson said. "We are trying to figure out what our real options are."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent Address:

20 E. Cape Rock Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO