Portsmouth To Welcome New Water Treatment Plant

The public is invited to a ribbon-cutting this Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Portsmouth water system’s new Madbury Water Treatment Plant, which will receive the prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification.

The new $20 million plant is the culmination of eight years of planning, testing, design and construction and replaces the 50-year-old plant at the same location. The plant provides drinking water to the Portsmouth Water System serving the communities of Portsmouth, Newington, New Castle and portions of Greenland and Rye.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the site, which is located 60 Freshet Road in Madbury.

 “The upgrade takes us from 50-year-old technology to current technology, using premium-efficient motors and energy-efficient designs,” said Deputy Department of Public Works David Allen.  “It was designed using LEED principles and includes innovative energy efficient elements such as positioning the plant to take advantage of solar orientation, passive solar hot water heating,  and source water heat pumps for heating and cooling.”

Allen said the new plant also provides a state-of-the-art, Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) treatment system designed to be able to adapt to ever-increasing State and Federal regulatory requirements.

The City’s 2003 Water System Master Plan called for an upgrade to the Madbury Water Treatment Plant to improve reliability, increase capacity, and meet future and current regulatory requirements. The new plant maintains a maximum treatment/pumping capacity of approximately 4 million gallons per day, but also has “redundant capacity if one unit process is down for maintenance.”

The plant was partially financed with State Revolving Fund monies.

Submitted by Pat Remick, City of Portsmouth