Water treatment plant updates begin
By Alyssa Schafer, Editor
Thanks to federal funds and years of planning, the $6.7 million water treatment plant renovation project got underway last week. The new, more efficient water treatment facility will undergo a complete overhaul over the next ten months. The water treated at the Washburn plant is distributed throughout the city of Washburn and the McLean-Sheridan Rural Water District. Last year, the Washburn facility treated about 80 million gallons of water. The treatment plant is currently able to treat about 500 gallons of water per minute. With the new system in place, that rate will increase to about 700 gallons per minute, Washburn Public Works Superintendent Larry Thomas said. In the past, there has been a need to ration water during long, hot summers with little precipitation, but Thomas doesn’t think that will be necessary thanks to the new system. "Once this is done, we should never have to ration again," he said.
