Lemoore city officials break ground on pioneering high quality water treatment plant

And if all goes according to plan, the taps could be flowing sometime in 2020.

Mayor pro tem John Plourde, and council members Dave Brown and Stuart Lyons joined Lemoore City Manager Nathan Olson and other officials as they ceremoniously broke ground for the new treatment plant.  

The $30 million project, financed by bond proceeds, won approved from the Lemoore City Council earlier this year and has been in the planning stages for some time. Council members, in April, approved a contract with J.R. Filanc Construction to assist the city in the design-build portion of the water treatment plant.

“This project started out at Reyna’s Restaurant on a napkin,” said Olson. “I’m really proud of this project. We sweat a lot of blood and tears, and Lemoore now is on the leading edge of water treatment.” He added the once completed water may cost its citizens about 60 cents per 1,000 gallons.

 Due to the modular nature of the treatment process, separate wellhead treatment plants will be installed at two of the city’s reservoir locations, the other on the west side of Lemoore in the West Hills College area.

Currently, the city gets all of its drinking water supply from local groundwater that has some quality issues, including elevated levels of ammonia, arsenic, iron, total organic carbon (TOC), and color. By blending water from various wells, Lemoore has mainly been able to meet its distribution water quality requirements.

What does this project mean for its citizens?

“Hopefully, everybody will experience good clean state-approved water,” said Plourde. “As the state changes its standards, bringing the amount of lead and other organic particulate matter in the water, as they lower it, we have to conform to the state standard, and that in turn will provide better drinking water for our citizens.”

However, high levels of TOC in the water kept requiring higher dosages of chlorine to provide disinfection in the city’s distribution system. The system is costly and eventually results in the creation of disinfection byproducts that can’t be overcome by blending.

City officials and consultants have piloted several treatment alternatives to address the disinfection issue and other water quality concerns. The city’s team of JR Filanc, Hazen & Sawyer, and AdEdge Water Technologies have created a process believed to be the first of its kind to address these kinds of water quality challenges.

Thanks to the modular nature of the treatment process, separate wellhead plants will be installed at two of the city’s reservoir locations rather than constructing a costly, centralized, traditional water treatment plant. City officials expect the two plants will be completed by mid to late 2020.