New water plant already passes first test

The delays in constructing Cape Girardeau's new water treatment plant made some folks wonder if the $17.5 million bond issue passed in 1996 to fund it would ever pay off. The project is about a year and a half overdue, and the contractors and engineering firm will have to decide who's to blame as the city of Cape Girardeau decides how much to assess in penalties.

Despite those problems, Cape Girardeau recently saw the benefits of the new water facilities. The city had its first really hot week of the summer season, and residents started turning on their sprinklers. They kept washing their cars. They did anything they wanted to involving water.

And the water was there. Nobody was asked to conserve.

In the past, using 7.1 million gallons of water in a day -- which happened July 10 -- would have meant dipping into the reserves or activating a smaller plant near the Diversion Channel. Instead, the 10 new wells on the banks of the Mississippi River and the water treatment plant improvements allowed the water to come from only one source.

City officials expect water usage to soar even higher as the summer progresses, and water will be there to meet the demand. That is one major area of comfort as the water project comes to a conclusion.