A look inside the city water plant

Shown at right, is the first process currently being used to clean New Rockford's drinking water, called "lime softening." This process softens the water by removing hard metals such as iron and manganese.

According to Swenson, this process is being completely replaced. Instead of lime, which can alter the water's taste, the treatment plant will use tube settlers (shown below) embedded with potassium permanganate, which will also remove hard metals and soften the water. Construction on the potassium permanganate treatment process began last week, so a temporary process is currently being used to treat the water. Much of the 40-year-old railing, piping, and catwalk seen above right will also be replaced, said Swenson.

Above is a large panel of various switches, electronics and controls located and currently being used in the same room as the lime softening process.

Below is the much smaller and more modern control panel scheduled to replace the old one. Swenson said that many of the upgrades to the water treatment plant will modernize old processes that have been used throughout the plant's 40-year history.

Above are images of the brand new reverse osmosis skids, the most expensive of the water treatment plant's new upgrades. Swenson told the Transcript the system will be responsible for removing smaller particles from New Rockford's drinking water, with the purpose of improving the water's overall taste. This is the last treatment process New Rockford's water will go through at the water treatment plant. Swenson added that there are two systems side-by-side for the purpose of redundancy, "so if one's down while we're working on it, the other one will still be operational." The system is housed inside a brand new addition constructed on the water treatment plant's south side, and according to Swenson, the system is nearly completed and will be ready to go once construction elsewhere is finished.