(Okoboji)—A ribbon cutting ceremony and open house will be held tomorrow (Thurs.) evening celebrating completion of a four-year, 12 million dollar expansion and renovation of the Central Water System treatment plant in Okoboji. Mike Miller of Central Water System tells KUOO news two factors led up to the project…(click here for comment.) “One was regulatory issues. Our old treatment method just wasn’t cutting it anymore so we needed a better treatment method. And two, there were some bottlenecks in the old plant. It limited our capacity that we could feed to the two cities. So we made a plant that was larger to handle that issue and it meets all the new regulatory issues that are coming now and in the future and hopefully it will last us for quite awhile.”
Miller says the project also included some improvements outside of the treatment plant itself…(click here for comment.) “We put in a new lake intake, we put in a new collection system for the water from the lake, and then we put in a new pump house and a new line up to the water plant so we have two intakes and two water lines up to the water plant, so should be able to handle anything that should come about in the future.”
Miller says the project also factored in the possible presence of zebra mussels in the lake…(click here for comment.) “When we put the new lake intake screens on we used a metal that’s supposed to help repel zebra mussels and we’re adding a chemical called sodium promagenate which also deals with zebra mussels and should inactivate them so we shouldn’t have any issues.”
The open house will be held tomorrow (Thurs.) evening from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. The plant is located just north of the Inn’s Conference Center in Okoboji. Parking will be available in the center’s parking lot.
Central Water System provides drinking water to the cities of Arnolds Park and Okoboji.
