The Evansville Water and Sewer Utility operates a conventional surface water treatment plant that has the capacity to draw up to 60 million gallons of raw water a day from the Ohio River. The plant filters, treats, monitors and delivers on average 23 million gallons of safe, quality drinking water daily through more than 1,000 miles of water lines to approximately 200,000 people in Southwest Indiana.
Like many cities across the country, Evansville Water and Sewer Utility’s (EWSU’s) water treatment plant is nearing the end of its useful life. Over the past 125 years, the facility has undergone multiple expansions and improvements to keep the plant in operation. In continuing to meet our commitment of providing a reliable supply of safe drinking water that meets or exceeds all federal and state water quality standards, EWSU is embarking on a plan to construct a new water treatment facility that will serve Evansville and surrounding communities.
The improvements at West Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) are part of a long-range Integrated Overflow Control Plan (IOCP) to comply with requirements of the federal consent decree. The plan increased the plant’s peak flow capacity from 30.6 million gallons per day (MGD) to 45 MGD and a 6.1-million-gallon upstream storage basin was added to reduce CSOs. The long-range plan also includes a new screening and diversion structure, new grit removal and handling facilities, improving operations of existing facilities and repurposing the existing main process building into a state-of-the-art operations center.
The WWTP expansion and storage basin project was recognized with an Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies-Indiana and the 2022 Concrete Achievement Award from the Indiana Ready Mix Concrete Association.
