Idaho town to vote on $16.5 million water plant expansion

Voters in McCall, Idaho, will decide on a $16.5 million bond that would enable the city to expand a water treatment plant and build a storage tank. The city’s growth, rising demand and aging infrastructure require improving the plant to ensure the city can reliably treat and store water. The treatment plant project has an estimated $24 million cost. Residents can vote on the bond May 21, 2024.

Investing in the water treatment plant would play a key role in McCall’s 2018 Master Plan. The master plan determined the city would need to enhance treatment and storage capabilities between 2025 and 2035.

The 23-year-old water treatment plant uses only two filters and cannot filter all particles and contaminants effectively, resulting in cloudy and muddy water. If approved, the bond would allocate $6.3 million to expand the treatment plant. The city would add two additional gravity filters to help process greater volumes of water.

Plans also include expanding the facility’s clearwell to accommodate up to 350,000 gallons. A larger clearwell would increase contact time, ensuring the system could more easily remove contaminants and disinfect larger volumes of water. The city also would upgrade the site’s electrical infrastructure, replace the facility’s roof and build a storage garage.

The bond would also direct $6.9 million to build a 2-million-gallon storage tank. The size of the existing tank is insufficient to accommodate peak demand and does not meet fire protection standards. The current tank is at 91% capacity.

The city would place the storage tank in a location that would improve how the plant interacts with and transfers the water across the distribution system. Increasing the amount of water storage would also help the treatment plant maintain compliance with regulatory measures.

McCall is located 108 miles north of Boise.

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