Director: New $9.6M facility will make hard water a thing of the past
By TONYA S. GRACE, KENTUCKY NEW ERA STAFF WRITER
Officials dug in their shovels and turned the dirt, their actions among the last during a ceremony that ushered in the beginnings of a new water treatment facility at Cadiz which many commented will take the rural western Kentucky community into the future.
“I think Cadiz and Trigg County is just poised for a great opportunity,” said State Sen. Stan Humphries, a former Trigg judge-executive and Cadiz resident who was among dignitaries attending a groundbreaking on Thursday morning for the plant.
Local, state, regional and federal officials were on hand for the event welcoming the facility.
Construction on the new $9.6 million plant is expected to begin in a couple of weeks in Trigg County’s industrial park, weather permitting.
Built on five acres of park property that will allow for a later expansion if needed, the 12,000-square-foot facility replaces a current plant that was built in 1963 and had major upgrades in 1997. That plant has been at 85 percent of its optimal capacity in the last few days, said Kerry Fowler, public works director for the City of Cadiz, as he emphasized the need for a new water plant for the city.
Fowler said the new plant will more than double the city’s current capacity, and it will utilize a new type of filtration known as membrane filtration. The city currently uses media filtration, which takes particles out of the water that are 40 to 50 times smaller than the hairs on a human head, he said, while membrane filtration removes particles that are 200 times smaller than a human hair.
“We have great water,” he said of media filtration, which is utilized worldwide. “It’s just going to be better.”
Among the advantages of a new system, Fowler told those attending Thursday’s ceremonies that the hard water experienced by Cadiz residents now will soon be a thing of the past for the folks who are hooked into the city’s water plant.
Cadiz Mayor Todd King sang the praises for both residents and prospective industry.
“We’ll get a big increase as far as how many gallons of water we can go through in a day’s time,” said King, who noted that building the new facility will likely be a project that will take anywhere from 18 months to two years to complete.
King said the state-of-the-art facility will serve both residents and industry, and he is hopeful that the facility will help his community attract more industry; he said Cadiz has had to turn down some companies because it didn’t have enough water.
U.S. Congressman James Comer, also among the speakers for the occasion, noted that Cadiz has the infrastructure, the workforce, good schools, a hospital and other features needed to attract industry. But he pointed out that manufacturers also depend on reliable, heavy water pressure for the expansion of their factories.
“You’re going to have that now at this water plant,” he said, describing the new plant as a step in the right direction, not only for the future of Cadiz, but for the entire region.
The new facility, he said will offer both a clean water supply for residents and an economic development tool for the community.
Humphries observed that his hometown is certainly in need of industry, and he noted that the new water treatment facility will be the catalyst to help that happen.
“This is a prime example of getting things in place and not getting the cart before the horse,” he said.
U.S. Department of Agriculture State Director Hilda Legg, whose agency provided a $1.8 million loan and an $810,000 grant for the project, said the Department of Agriculture believes that clean, safe and potable water is a necessity for rural communities.
She said her agency wants “the unprecedented amount of funding” it has made available to Cadiz and other communities to be invested in those communities, and she predicted that next year will set records for funding as well in rural communities.
In addition to the Department of Agriculture, additional funding for the project in Cadiz included a $1 million community development block grant, a $1.8 million Kentucky Solid Waste Grant and a $400,000 Delta Regional Authority Grant.
King likened the new water treatment facility in his community to a dream come true.
“We’ve been talking about this, going through the phases and everything, for the last four or five years,” he said. “Now it’s finally hit. We’re going to do it by building a new (water treatment) plant.”
Smith Contracting of Lawrenceburg is in charge of the project, and design engineers are from Water Management Services LLC.
