By By Thomas Tingle
Record Managing Editor
Construction of an $8 million water treatment plant in south Madison will begin next spring and will be able to treat more than eight million gallons of water per day.
Whitey Bressette, general manager of the Water and Wastewater Department for the city of Madison, explained what will be occurring to get the new water treatment plant on line and what is being done to ease the minds of residents in the nearby Edgewater community who have concerns regarding its construction.
The water treatment plant will be located on four acres of property off Disk Drive. The property adjoins the western edge of Edgewater at Mainsail Way.
"At the present time, we have the Drake Well Package Treatment Facility located near the entrance of Edgewater. It is between 13 and 14 years old," Bressette said. "At the end of the east runway of Huntsville International Airport we have found a large source of water – the Rowe well, and the well has been permitted to produce more than 3,000 gallons of water per minute."
Bressette said the new water treatment plant would treat the water coming out of the new well.
"We will close the Drake Well Package Treatment Facility. However, the well remain open and water in the Drake well will be treated at the new plant," Bressette said. "We will construct a raw water holding tank and aeration filter at the top of the old rock quarry site. All water from the new Rowe well and the Drake well will go to this raw water holding tank at the rock quarry site. It will be gravity fed to the new water treatment plant and pumped from the plant back out to the existing piping system for distribution in Madison."
Bressette said the department is looking into the possibility of reopening the Lady Ann Lake Well that was closed back in 1990. A permit to get it flowing again is required. He said if it is reopened, water from that well will join in with the Drake Well.
To ease the minds of residents of Mainsail Way, Bressette said the existing hedgerow of trees would be left. A 10 to 12-foot dirt berm with grass and cypress trees will be built.
"At the new water treatment plant site, there will be no above ground tanks on the property," Bressette said. "All of the buildings will be made out of brick and decorative blocks. A wooden fence will also be built and low profile lighting will be installed."
Bressette said the high service pumps that takes the finished, treated water will be enclosed in a brick sound proof building.
"One thing I'd like for folks to know is the fact that Intergraph, which owned the property we're going to build this new plant on, had great interest in what was going on and what was going to be built at this site," Bressette said. Since it the property is zoned M-2, any number of different types of buildings could have been built out there. Intergraph agreed to what we were going to do before selling the property to us."