A water treatment facility that serves a quarter million customers in Western Massachusetts is getting an overhaul. The lengthy project has secured more federal funding.
Tucked away in the southwest corner of Westfield, the West Parish Water Treatment Plant serves much of Hampden County.
That includes retail drinking water and wastewater service for Springfield and regional water treatment for towns like Agawam, Longmeadow, and more.
Overseen by the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission, the plant got its start in 1909 – when the original West Parish Filters set up shop with a series of slow sand filters chambers.
Over the years, the facility’s seen additions and improvements, though one of the last, major modernizations was in 1974. But, with hundreds of millions of dollars already secured and more allotted by Congress, another overhaul is on the horizon.
“We've been creating and making water at this site for 115 years and [the] technology that we're using is outdated, and so we're creating a new plant here … that's going to last the next century,” Josh Schimmel, executive director of the SWSC, told reporters during a groundbreaking for the project Wednesday, Oct. 16.
For the past decade, plans for a new treatment plant have been coming together, with the SWSC securing a $250 million federal infrastructure loan from the EPA in 2021.
The end goal is a new plant that ensures reliability – allowing for safer, more efficient treatment, processes according to the commission, as well as resolving issues involving disinfection byproducts or DBPs.
“Drinking water is the cornerstone of public health and public safety, so that's what we do," Schimmel added. “Regardless of what the treatment is, it's having trust in the water that you drink, and so using the technology and the new treatments that we're going to be using to clean the water and provide it to our customers is the key to gaining the trust and retaining the trust so that people turn the tap on and they don't think twice about drinking the water.”
The new plant is expected to cost at least $293 million in construction. Design, engineering, and construction contingency costs total almost $70.5 million.
“You have to spend money, invest money, to make sure the system stays really one of the top in the country,” Sarno said at the event. “You know, you look at what occurred in Flint, Michigan, you look at what occurred in Jackson, Mississippi, where investments were not made and you look at other countries or third world countries - what spreads disease? Water, a bad water system. And again, we're so lucky, historic what has been done here, well-over 100 years ago, working with gravity and science and physics.”
Funding is also coming from the Massachusetts Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
More recently, the project got another boost from Washington, celebrated at the groundbreaking that included some of the state’s delegation, such as Democratic Senator Ed Markey.
“We had to work hard to include the $4.6 million for the earmark that Congressman Neal and Senator Warren and I worked on to provide the additional funding," the senator said. "But, it's all done, and now it's in the hands of the great workers that are gathered here today - so many of the great union workers who are going to, ultimately, do the work to construct this new system.”
The work is expected to create around 300 construction jobs over the span of four years. It’s also being designed by the firm Hazen and Sawyer, which the SWSC says designed the original West Parish Filters in 1909.
Officials say construction will commence this fall, starting with demolition of sand filters dating back to 1925 and various prep work. Fall 2028 is the tentative completion date.
