Cape dedicates improved city water treatment plant

The city of Cape Girardeau now has its own bottled water. But the 300 bottles of city-treated water aren't for sale. They're free.

Cape Girardeau city officials showed off the special bottled water at a dedication ceremony Wednesday marking completion of $17.6 million in improvements to the water treatment plant on Cape Rock Drive, the city's main water plant.

About 20 city staff members, water plant employees and city officials attended the brief ceremony.

The city expects to hand out its bottled water at an open house Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. where the public will be treated to tours of the plant.

Cape Girardeau's police and fire stations will hold open houses the same day, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., as city officials tout a June 8 sales tax election to help fund the police and fire departments.

Speaking at the dedication, Mayor Jay Knudtson said there have been "some challenges" on the water plant project. They included numerous engineering and construction problems that delayed substantial completion until fall 2003, more than a year and half after the Feb. 18, 2002, deadline.

The contractor, Huffman Inc. of Poplar Bluff, Mo., and the engineering firm, Burns & McDonnell of St. Louis, have pointed fingers at each other for missing the deadline.

City manager Doug Leslie said city officials currently are withholding over $1 million in final payment on the project as discussions continue over monetary damages for the construction delay. Leslie said the dispute ultimately might end up in court.

But city officials at the dedication said the project -- despite the problems -- has dramatically improved the city's 73-year-old water system.

The treatment plant project -- funded by a bond issue that is being retired with money from a quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1996 -- expanded the city's water treatment plant.

Leslie said the city since last summer has no longer had to ask residents to conserve water during dry, hot summers.

The water plant and a secondary plant on South Sprigg Street can pump more than 10 million gallons of filtered water a day.

Last year, daily water use in the city was about 6 million gallons. But the usage jumped to more than 8 million gallons a day last summer, said water system manager Kevin Priester.

The project involved construction of 10 wells and expansion of the plant. The wells produce about 65 percent of the city's water supply. The rest comes from the river.

The city's smaller southside plant -- which produces water from three wells -- is used now to provide additional water when usage is high, Priester said.

The larger plant, with its new pumps, pipes and filtration tanks, includes the addition of a lime treatment that filters out hard minerals and helps soften the water, he said.

Priester said home water softeners will filter the water even more. But with the city's new treatment system, residents can cut down on the salt they use in such treatment systems, he said.

The city is looking to add four to five more wells at the Cape Rock plant and largely eliminate the need to use river water. Well water is cleaner and requires less filtering , Priester said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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