On Tuesday, April 5, Richmond residents will be asked by the city of Richmond to authorize $5 million in general obligation bonds to improve the waterworks system of the city. These improvements entail upgrades to the water plant and implementing a comprehensive water main replacement program.

Richmond owns and operates its own water supply, treatment plant and distribution system. Maintaining this asset is vital to our community. If there’s no water, there are no residents, there’s no Richmond.

Fortunately, our community rests in an area with abundant water, provided by the Missouri River and its adjacent watersheds. When built in 1976, the Richmond Water Treatment Plant was placed in the Willow Creek watershed with its abundant underground aquafers. Three wells pump water out of the ground to be treated and delivered to your home.

Well No. 3 was originally drilled in 1967 at a depth of 87 feet. Pumping equipment to meet modern needs was installed in 1997 and completely rebuilt in 2011. The pump has a current capacity of over 1,000 gallons per minute or gpm.

Towering above the corn fields, Well No. 5 was originally drilled in 1996 at a depth of 101 feet. The current pumping equipment was installed in 2000 to provide another 1,000gpm when needed.

Well No. 6 was originally drilled in 2001 at a depth of 99 feet. The current pumping equipment was also installed in 2001, completely rebuilt in 2011, and provides over 800gpm.

Water from these supply wells is pumped directly to the Water Treatment Plant for processing. At the treatment plant, two aerators receive the water from the wells which removes dissolved volatile gases and helps oxidize naturally occurring compounds. Water then moves through the aerators to the raw water splitter box which continues the process of removing unwanted metals.

The water continues to the treatment plant’s solids contact basin, where heavy materials in the water settles. A lime slurry stored in the three large silos on top of the treatment plant are added to soften the water and increase the pH. Heavy materials that settle at the bottom of the basin drains by gravity to lagoons near the plant.

After passing through the CO2 contact basin to raise pH to desirable levels, our water reaches the sand filters. These four filters consist of a base layer of gravel, a middle layer of sand and a top layer of anthracite, a type of coal. Like a filter found on a fish tank, water passes through the filters, removing other unwanted solids. And just like maintenance for a fish tank filter, these are cleaned regularly. After 300 hours of operation, staff performs an automated backwash cycle, removing the collected sediment.

If operated continuously for 24 hours, the Water Treatment Plant has a daily treatment capacity of 1,670,000 gallons of water per day. While that may seem like plenty of water, our capacity needs are growing. As more businesses and residents come to Richmond needing water, and the number of water main breaks due to aging infrastructure continues to rise, our community is faced with a decision: Do we continue to move in the same direction with reactive patches to broken water mains and address the treatment plant concerns as they arise? Or should we take this opportunity to invest in ourselves, resolve the consistently emerging problems and move Richmond forward.

For more information, visit our GO Richmond webpage at www.cityofrichmondmo.org or visit us on Facebook page at facebook.com/cityofrichmondmo.

James Gorham,

City economic development director

(Submission edited for space)