City dedicates new water treatment plant

By Mike Ford, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Monday, December 10, 2007 (8 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Mayor Jerry Neumeier, left, addresses various township, county, state and federal dignitaries, as well as construction leaders, Friday during the water treatment plant dedication ceremony. City Council President Bob Ulm, center, served as master of ceremonies for a brief program during which City Safety Service Director Greg Berquist, right, praised all city employees, especially those who work in the water department.DELPHOS — After approximately six years of gathering funding from various sources, extensive planning and dedication from those in city government, the Delphos Water Treatment facility near Waterworks Park was officially dedicated Friday.
Representatives from the city, Allen County, Van Wert County and state government joined representatives of Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator George Voinovich, Congressman Jim Jordan and the wife of the late Paul Gillmor, Karen Gillmor.
Tours were enjoyed, as was a lunch that was preceded by a short presentation by City Council President Bob Ulm.
“This is a big day for our community,” Ulm said. “The next task is to make our resources available to other communities and partners. I would like to express my gratitude to the city employees, especially those at the water treatment plant.”
From visiting elected officials in our nation’s capital to putting a shovel in the ground when reservoir construction began, the water project has been the principle vision of the current administration.
“It’s very impressive to see the accomplishment of ideas when they come full-circle and the contributions of city employees and the people of Delphos have been great. People in the water industry are talking about us very positively; Delphos has earned a lot of respect,” said Mayor Jerry Neumeier.
The mayor told the approximately 75 persons in attendance they all “have a piece” in the project, which enhances the quality of life in Delphos.
The crowd gave its loudest applause to Karen Gillmor, who spoke of her late husband’s dedication to the district and its local communities.
Local government was what Ohio Fourth District Representative Matt Huffman pointed to when praising the Delphos project.
“One of the great things about local government is that it has a great eye on what’s needed in its community. You get the best bang for your buck with local government and this is an example of that,” he said.
Mayor-elect Mike Gallmeier praised the project with reference to local restaurants.
“We’ve gotten calls from restaurants telling us the coffee tastes better and the ice is clearer. This is the most exciting thing I’ve seen in eight years on city council,” he said.
City Safety Service Director Greg Berquist gave special recognition to those who, he said, put the plant together in “essentially 27 months.” Chief of those persons is Water Superintendent Tim Williams.
Williams says water softeners should be set to 120 parts per million and reverse osmosis will no longer be needed. He describes how the process works at the new treatment plant.
“The Delphos water treatment facility is a conventional, two-stage softening, surface water treatment plant employing preoxidation, first-stage ferric sulfate treatment with rapid mixing, flocculation and sedimentation, and second-stage lime softening followed by recarbonation and rapid sand filtration. The filtered water is disinfected, fluoridated, and treated for corrosion control before discharge to the distribution system,” he added.
Post-disinfection with sodium hypochlorite is accomplished upstream of the plant’s finished water clearwells. Fluoride is also added to the filtered water to provide additional health benefits by reducing the risk of dental disease, and an orthophosphate corrosion control chemical is applied to minimize the corrosivity of the finished water supply with respect to lead and copper.
The water treatment plant went online Oct. 11.
The water originates from a reservoir which covers nearly 50 acres and holds 438 million gallons of water.
“The river pump is rated at 5 million gallons per day, or 3,472 gallons per minute,” Williams said.
The walk around the facility’s crest is 1.15 miles and at maximum height, the reservoir floor is 29 feet below the surface.
Construction began with a groundbreaking at the reservoir on June 23, 2006.
The project costs approximately $16 million. City officials indicate the largest portion of funding came from federal appropriations in the amount of $3,132,100 for the reservoir’s construction. Other federal appropriations came in the amount of $465,600 for purchasing the land and engineering and $250,000 for a feasibility study early in the process. The remainder came in the form of loans; $390,000 as a zero interest loan from the Ohio Public Works Commission for water lines and all others from the Ohio Water Development Authority.
Approximately $100,000 had to be spent when the excavators found sand, gravel and stone. The deposits were removed from the interior of the site and backfilled from adjacent land.

1 Reader Response to “City dedicates new water treatment plant”

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  1. #1 — Added 8 months, 3 weeks ago

    It’s too bad that city officials continue to add unnecessary fluoride chemicals into your glass of water and cup of coffee.

    Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth. The chemicals most used for fluoridation are silicofluorides - which are a lead and arsenic laced waste products of fertilizer manufacturing.

    Over 1200 Professionals Urge Congress to End Water Fluoridation. You can join them:

    Online Petition to End Fluoridation and call for a Congressional Hearing

    http://www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm?option=begin&page id=8276

    Sponsored by the Fluoride Action Network http://FluorideAction.Net

    Posted on December 10, 2007 at 9:34 am by nyscof