Sep. 23--Public Utilities is involved in several major projects, Public Utilities Superintendent Bill Callaway told Lions Club members Tuesday. The utility employs 38 people full-time and operates on $14 million a year between water and electric utilities.

Callaway talked about the various projects Public Utilities is currently engaged in, from the new water plant to adding pipes and rebuilding the city's electric lines.

Overall, those projects are "on schedule" Callaway said.

WATER PLANT -- The water plant started up as a $7.8 when the process started four years ago and will end up being closer to $10 million. The plant's capacity is 3 million gallons a day with expansion to 4 million.

"That $7.8 million number was four years ago, today things have changed," Callaway said. "We are very fortunate we are as far along as we are. In the process of design we did three major studies. We determined even before the state or EPA that we had uranium in our water. The RO plant we're building is the only known technology that will take care of uranium in the water. So we're ahead of the game, we're not being forced to do anything, we're on our own schedule.

"We're going to go from having some of the worst water in the state of Kansas to having some of the best," he said. "It's going to increase our fire protection, our quantities ... It's a long process, it's taken a long time. We realize our customers have been paying for this project and not receiving the water yet."

Part of the reason it has taken four years to start building the plant is due to the state's revolving loan, Callaway said.

He said people have a lot of concern about the time table of the plant, but a lot more has been constructed that is underground than what people can see at a glance. Currently the most noticeable feature is the plant's half-a-million gallon tank.

This tank is "a new design, very unique" that is pour on site first in layers, then a 5-16th inch wire is wrapped around it twice and concrete blown onto the side to hold it all together. That makes the tank earthquake-proof and "eliminates some of the construction costs and variables in tank design," Callaway said.

The purpose of the tank is not storage, but to hold water with chlorine in it for 40 minutes before putting it into the distribution system, which is required by the state. The plant will come online in March. Currently the plant is two and a half days behind schedule.