The City of Vandalia could have a new water treatment plant as that appears to be the direction the City Council is heading after work session to discuss the issue on Monday evening. During the work session, the council was presented information about the current plant as well as their options with either upgrading the existing plant or building a new plant. Included in the information was the fact that the IEPA identified that the plant needed to increase its water production. Other things needing to be replaced or upgraded is a raw water river intake, adding a new backwash pump replacing or repairing the clearwell. Three options for the city were then broke down including one set of figures showing the cost of upgrading the plant and two sets of figures showing the costs of building a new plant. The cost of upgrading the current plant to an output of 2.5 million gallons a day from its current 1.125 mgd at a cost of $15,403,500 with 2.75% and an estimated monthly payment of just under $60,000. The cost of a new plant with an output of 2.5 mgd is estimated to cost $21,108,900 with 2.75% interest and a monthly payment cost of $82,130. The cost of a new plant with an output of 1.5 mgd is estimated to be $16 million at 2.75% interest and a monthly payment cost of $62,253. After the work session, Mayor Rick Gottman says that with the current plant being built in 1951 and nearing the end of its useful life, the council appears to be leaning towards building a new plant.
Gottman also said after the work session that the engineers from Milano & Grunloh will begin to put together a calendar for the city to outline how to move forward with the project and get something done with the water plant.