$12.5 Million Water Treatment Plant Upgrade Complete, It's Time to Celebrate

The $12.5 million upgrade of the Globe Hollow Water Treatment Plant may have been completed last January, but town officials finally got around to celebrating it on Wednesday, Dec. 14. 

Town officials, including Mayor Leo V. Diana, General Manager Scott Shanley, and Ed Soper, administrator of the water and sewer departments, held an informal ribbon cutting ceremony outside the facility Wednesday afternoon to mark the event. 

The upgrades include security, efficiency and safety improvements at the plant, as well as the installation of an pre-ozonation system to improve the taste and odor of the water, and a switch over from gaseous to liquid chlorine. 

"Basically, it's to produce better quality water and to upgrade the facility, which is 25 years old," Soper said. 

The Globe Hallow Water Treatment Plant, which produces about 6 million gallons of water a day, was constructed in 1982. On a tour of the upgraded facility, Soper noted many of the improvements, such as new adjustable frequency drives on mixers for energy savings, and a large emergency generator that he said allowed the plant to operate at optimum capacity through both Tropical Storm Irene and Winter Storm Alfred. 

Soper said the upgrades should extend the life of the building for another 25 years. 

Shanley said the upgrade was financed through bonding, but will be paid for by customers in the form of rate increases.  

A ground breaking ceremony for the planned off Olcott Street is scheduled to take place at noon on Thursday. That project is expected to be completed by early 2014, when in treated water that empties into the Long Island Sound that take effect. 

"We've got a lot going on at the moment," Soper said.