Expansion approved for Indian Creek Water Treatment Plant

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County will spend $18 million to expand its Indian Creek Water Treatment Plant near Connellsville, which supplies water to about half of the agency’s more than 121,000 customers.

Authority officials said the construction project, expected to begin this spring, will allow an additional 10 million gallons of water a day to be withdrawn from the Youghiogheny River and treated with modernized equipment.

“The expansion of the Indian Creek plant is necessary to ensure future water availability for our residents and businesses and for future economic development opportunities,” said authority business manager Brian Hohman.

Board members approved the project Friday.

The authority is permitted to take up to 50 million gallons of water a day from the river and the plant expansion and upgrade is expected to enable the facility to increase its capacity by 25%. The authority currently takes 40 million gallons a day from the river.

The plant treats water for customers located south of Route 30 and accounts for half of the authority’s overall service area that includes Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Fayette and Indiana counties.

The project will be paid from from money borrowed in 2016. Three additional filters and two clarifiers will be installed to enable the plant to handle the increased water production. New motors and upgraded equipment also will be installed to pump more water from the river.

Other plant upgrades include the installation of an ultraviolet light disinfection system that will be used to kill organisms without the use of chemicals, a change officials said will improve the quality of the water sent out to customers.

Indian Creek was built in 1973, upgraded in 1979 and again just two years ago to improve the plant’s efficiency.