Washburn Water Treatment Plant reaches completion
By Michael Johnson, Editor
The renovated Washburn Water Treatment Plant has been a project a long time coming in the city and it finally came to completion in mid-September. Talk of the project began in the early 90s when it became clear to Brett Jochim of AE2S that the plant was going to need some major changes in order to comply with new regulations in water. Jochim spoke of his time on the project at a reception following the open house for the new plant on Oct 11. It was about 22 years ago that Jochim first walked into the plant. That plant was built in the 70s and he was there to work through some issues occurring at the plant. After spending about four days there, during the spring runoff, he got to understand the workings of the plant. “A consolidated effort was necessary,” Jochim said of the need to improve to meet regulations. “There’s a lot of things we can do without, but water is not one of them,” Jochim said. The facilities plan was drawn up by operations manager Russell Sorenson, who also designed the newest water tower and the water plant.
