Since August of 2009, the town of Stoughton has struggled with a boil water advisory, which has finally been lifted with the unveiling of the new Water Treatment Plant.
The plant began operating in October, but an official open house was hosted on Friday, Dec. 19, at 1 p.m. for members of the public to have a look and to learn more about the new system.
Originally the water treatment plant was more of a small treatment room. It has now been expanded to nearly twice its size and has central heat, which is an improvement on the space heater in the old building.
The water for the town is taken from three wells east of town and piped into the treatment plant. Here the water is treated with potassium magnate which lowers levels of unwanted minerals in the water.
“If you looked inside the cells after the water is treated with that you’d wonder because the water actually looks purple, but the potassium magnate actually lowers iron and manganese levels in the water,” Rod Folk, Town Foreman, explained.
It is then run through the filtration system. After the water is processed, chlorine is added to it and it is stored in the three storage areas first moving through a 50,000 litre tank to a 150,000 litre tank, and finally to a 50,000 litre tank before it is piped into the town.
This means the town has a 200,000 litre capacity, which has increased from the 150,000 litre capacity it had been according to Folk.
This system is now able to serve a population of about 1,000. Stoughton currently has just below 700 residents while the town is also providing water to businesses including the hotels in town as well.
Mayor Bill Knous was very happy to see the completion of the plant, which he says was one of his primary focuses as mayor.
“It was one of my major goals when running for mayor,” Mayor Knous explained. “I’ve been in for two years and we’ve got the plant running, so you’ve got to be happy with that. What a Christmas present! We’re all happy with it.”
“It was that first Christmas I phoned Ed Komarnicki and asked what we could do, he told me to just hang on, and three months later we had a $250,000 grant which really made this happen. With that away we went.”
Komarnicki joined the group on Dec. 19 to see the new facility that was made a reality through a joint effort between the town and government.
