Waterloo’s water treatment facility went online right at the end of 2024, and though a few finishing touches are still on the horizon, residents should be able to avoid increasing water rates while the city celebrates the consolidation of another utility.

Waterloo Mayor Stan Darter and Zoning Administrator Nathan Krebel provided the Republic-Times with a tour of the facility in Valmeyer.

The community previously got its water from Illinois American Water Company which, per Darter, pumped water from the Mississippi River to a plant in East St. Louis. With Illinois American providing water to a number of municipalities in the area, Waterloo’s water flowed through Columbia before making its way to the city.

The new treatment facility keeps things somewhat more local, starting with the source of the water.

A trio of wells are located off Bluff Road, about a mile north of Old Valmeyer. These wells drill into the Mississippi Aquifer, working one at a time throughout the day.

Though Darter boasted that the water from the aquifer is clean enough to drink as it is, it is sent from the wells to the new treatment facility near the Valmeyer school building.

Water first enters a detention tank, passing through an aerator before being pumped into the facility.

It then passes through the filtration system, a trio of large filters all running simultaneously, each with multiple faucets to take samples of the water quality.

Chemicals are introduced to treat the water both as it enters the detention tank and as it exits the filters.

Water is regularly backwashed through the system, getting pumped out to a detention pond outside the facility.

Clean, filtered water is then sent to a clearwell tank still on-site.

Taking advantage of Valmeyer’s higher elevation relative to Waterloo, water from the clearwell tank then flows all the way to the city into a million gallon tank along Moore Street, across the road from Gateway FS.

This tank has been used to fill Waterloo’s existing 250,000 gallon water tower for some time, though it now pumps into the 500,000 gallon tower nearby at the Waterloo VFW Hall Post 6504.

Back in Valmeyer, the treatment facility also features a space to test the water passing through the filters as well as several points to monitor the process from wells to Waterloo.

As Darter and Krebel explained, the facility currently handles about 1,000 gallons of water a minute, comfortably handling the height of Waterloo’s summer water consumption which Darter estimated at 1.1-1.2 million gallons per day.

They explained that this was hardly the full capacity of the facility, however, as it is able to run 3,000 gallons per minute or around 3.2 million gallons per day.

With the filters already being oversized for their current use, the facility also has space for a fourth.

Darter and Krebel also emphasized redundancy as a core part of the system. The facility features a backup generator alongside the high-capacity filters.

The tank and tower in the city are also at a high enough total capacity in order to ensure that residents have access to water for at least a day in the event that the treatment facility demands maintenance or something in the process should malfunction.

“Redundancy is very important when all of your residents rely on you for everything,” Darter said.

The facility was designed by Artesian of Pioneer Water Treatment Systems, with the plant being laid out by HMG Engineers.

Along with running through the mechanics and other details of the treatment facility and water system, Darter also discussed how the additions to the city’s utilities came about.

As he recounted, planning began back in 2019 as the city recognized that it was approaching the end of a 30 year contract with Illinois American.

“We had been with Illinois American for what would be – our contract was going to be up Oct. 31 of 2024 – and that would have been 30 years,” Darter said. “During that time frame, our water prices had gotten higher and higher and higher.”

Darter further explained that the convenience of the nearby aquifer also contributed to the decision to build a city-owned water treatment system, as did the fact that the city already owns other essential utilities.

“We have a very good source of water available in the bottoms in an aquifer,” Darter said. “Since we own all of our own infrastructure, we own all of our other utilities, it made sense to do that or at least explore it. And after we explored it, then it became more and more a viable option.”

Though the plan first began just with an idea for a treatment facility, construction of a new water tower also seemed ideal given that the previous tower is about 85 years old and, a few years ago, required repairs to the extent that the reservoir needed to be emptied.

“With interest rates being very low – less than one percent – this was an opportune time for us to build a new tower along with our new water plant,” Darter said.

Altogether, the cost of the project comes out to around $33-34 million, the loan from the Illinois EPA to be paid over the next 30 years.

As intended, Darter explained that Waterloo residents should be able to avoid substantial rate hikes that Illinois American has enacted several times in recent years.

Notably, such a rate hike came with the start of the year.

Darter said that the city plans to continue with the current rate until it gets a better idea of what the water production costs are, though he said city officials feel “our rates will always be lower than Illinois American.”

With the water treatment system online, one aspect of the facility still requiring working is the water softening process, with at least a few residents taking to Facebook to bemoan the hardness of water since the city changed systems.

Darter offered an explanation.

“The water softening is not where it needs to be right now,” Darter said. “We are waiting on a piece of equipment that will resolve that, and we hope to have that in place within four or five weeks. Once we have that in place, then the water softening basically will happen just like it always has in the past, meaning that the water that is delivered to our residents will be back at the same level it was. That’s a very short-term problem.”