WORK ON S. ILLINOIS WATER PLANT TO START

TAMMS, Ill. -- Construction of a new multimillion-dollar water treatment and distribution center to serve portions of Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties will begin near here soon.

SouthWater Inc., a not-for-profit company created by Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative more than two years ago, will start the first phase of the system following a loan-closing and grant-signing ceremony at the co-op's offices near Dongola Friday.

The $20 million project will be completed in several phases, with the first to be finished in early 1998.

SouthWater Inc. will sponsor the ceremony, said Larry Lovell, executive vice president of the co-op.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello and a representative from U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard's office will attend the conference. Costello, D-Belleville, and Poshard, D-Marion, were instrumental in setting up a series of meetings with federal and state officials to gather support for the project in late 1994.

The idea of a regional water treatment center emerged during a meeting of representatives from the Illinois EPA, Southern Five Regional Planning Commission, Farmers Home Administration, Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, and Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative.

For the first phase, SouthWater will receive $4 million in grants and $3.8 million in loans from Rural Development, formerly known as the Farmers Home Administration.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs has committed $2 million for the project.

The first phase calls for construction of the processing and distribution plant and 159 miles of transmission pipe that will serve the areas of Pulaski, Mill Creek, Mounds, Dongola, the McClure-East Cape Water District and the Central Alexander County Public Water District, which have already agreed to use the water services.

The new facility and one of the wells will be alongside the Olive Branch-Tamms Blacktop south of Egyptian High School.

Following preliminary water test results showing good quality water, plans have been continuing over the past year for buying right-of-way. An engineering firm has been preparing preliminary designs for a water storage tank, piping system and plant facility.

Tentative plans for the facility call for building a 2.4 million-gallon-a-day water treatment plant, three wells, a booster pump station, a 500,000-gallon ground-storage tank, a 750,000-gallon elevated storage tank and 59 miles of 8-, 10- and 12-inch water main with valves and meters.

SouthWater will sell water wholesale to communities and water districts that want to become a part of the system. They include the Central Alexander County Water District in the Olive Branch area and McClure-East Cape Girardeau Water District and districts at Mill Creek, Mounds and Pulaski.

It will also sell water retail to customers in currently unserved rural areas.

As many as 1,600 homes in the service area aren't connected to a municipal water system, and 80 percent of residents have indicated they will sign on with SouthWater.

The average monthly fee charged by SouthWater will be about $27, said Lovell. That would include the use of about 4,500 gallons of water.