HILLSBORO – It’s called, “J.D. Sims – R.M. Hames Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Facility”. But most folks in Morgan and Lawrence County still call it the water plant. Fair enough. But… According to General Manager Jeaniece Slater, and Plant Manager Dennie Robinson, this is a far cry from your Granddad’s water system. They told The Quad Cities Daily, “It’s more like the cutting edge of 21st Century technology for transforming plain-old river water into some of the cleanest and purest you’ll find anywhere.”
For decades, tremendous amounts of industrial waste had been dumped upstream of the old water plant, the site upon which this shining new facility stands. However with the advent of new industrial environmental standards, implemented in the last couple of decades, things have changed. Now, add to that help from the Courts handing down judgements against the polluters, Morgan and Lawrence County water authorities were awarded well over $30-million in settlement damages, which paid for the facility.
The process, fundamentally, is vaguely similar to your typical home water softener. It employs a process called “reverse osmosis”. After the river water is pumped up to the facility, then strained, skimmed, and clarified (just like the more traditional water purification plants do), the magic happens. Under pressure, this water is forced to pass through a new type of filtration system that stops the microscopic impurities and disease-causing organisms, while at the same time allows the pure water to pass through a series of banks of high-tech membranes. Once processed, the water is super pure and is very “soft”, say a Ph of under 7. That’s the kind of softness that makes it difficult to rinse off the soap when you’re in the shower. So they chemically harden the water up a bit, so that it feels and tastes like something you’d find in a limestone spring. We tried the water out, and it is really good!
Robinson said the plant is producing over 7-million gallons of water each day, well below the capacity of the facility. “We wanted to allow for future growth in water usage, so we built in some extra capacity for upcoming demand.”
The water treatment facility was engineered, and is monitored by INSITE ENGINEERING of Hoover, Alabama. C.E.O. of INSITE, Bryan K. Pate, P.E.,was at the water treatment plant for a scheduled inspection, and he told us that he was extremely pleased with the final product and was also quite impressed by the team working there.
We were quite impressed, as well.
Here are some photos…
