Improvements at Missouri American Water's Jefferson City water treatment plant on West Main Street are nearing completion.
Work began in August, and company officials said the facilities will be ready before the end of the year. Workers are training on the new equipment now.
The upgrades involve providing redundancy for existing basins, increasing plant capacity, and installing a new lime storage and feed system to replace existing equipment. The goal is to design and build these upgrades to allow for increased plant capacity in the future should customer demand increase.
Many of the improvements deal with presedimentation, the process by which heavier particles fall out of the water and collect at the bottom. Company officials said they basically scoop the clean water off the top and push it into the next step of the treatment process.
The Jefferson City plant treats 6.5 million gallons per day of water from the Missouri River, serving 11,000 customers in the Jefferson City area. The majority of the plant's facilities were installed in 1963.
While extensive maintenance and improvements have occurred over the years, company officials said, the plant was due for significant improvements to the existing facilities as they lack redundancy of key treatment units.
There will be some work in early 2018 to remove the old lime system once the new system proves to be operating well.