Evansville considering alternative to new water treatment plant
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Evansville Water and Sewer Utility said this week it is investigating the use of groundwater as an alternative to the city’s previous plan of building a brand new surface water treatment plant.
During a meeting of the Evansville Rotary Club, the utility’s executive director, Vic Kelson, said plans for the new plant have been put on a temporary pause while the groundwater option is explored.
Plans for the water treatment plant have been in the works since 2021. The facility would have replaced the city’s existing plant, which was built in the 1890s and has seen 10 additions since that time.
In 2022, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved a request from the utility to raise water rates in support of the more than $220 million project, in addition to replacing water mains and helping pay for a new city garage.
However, Joe Atkinson, communications director for the city of Evansville, said in an email to Inside INdiana Business that the original design suggested that the cost of the project would exceed available revenue. The city is now in the process of designing a hybrid plant that would reuse part of the existing facility.
The utility said in a news release that supplementing surface water from the Ohio River with groundwater from wells could save upwards of $50 million on a new plant, lower the cost of treating PFAS—or “forever chemicals”—and reduce the need for significant water rate increases in the future.
The city is required by state regulators to have a plan to treat PFAS by the summer of 2025 and be ready to implement that plan by 2030. Kelson said treating the chemicals could add $100 million in future capital expenses.
“At that point, we considered the possibility that our groundwater might not have PFAS,” Kelson said. “After realizing that an earlier groundwater study hadn’t looked at treating groundwater and surface water separately, we decided to investigate and see if that would be a viable approach to dealing with PFAS.”
The utility conducted tests of several monitoring wells and a test well that found no detectable levels of PFAS. They also found the wells could pump enough water to decrease the city’s reliance on surface water.
Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry said she was in support of exploring the possible use of groundwater.
“As a city, we’re committed to moving forward in the most responsible—and the most fiscally responsible —manner possible,” Mayor Terry said in the release. “By incorporating groundwater into our water system, we could not only see tremendous financial benefit for the city and all EWSU customers, but we also could see cleaner water from a more diversified water supply.”
Atkinson said the utility expects to make a decision on the groundwater option in the next 3-6 months.