LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Indiana American Water announced Monday it's working on designing a new treatment plant to improve water quality for customers in Charlestown.
Charlestown residents have dealt with brown water for years. Indiana American Water took over the city's utility in 2019 and promised to solve the water issues.
Construction on the plant is set to begin this summer and is expected to be complete next year. The company said it will put a temporary filtration unit in place by April to help improve water quality in the meantime.
"I was overjoyed, literally over-the-moon excited about this," Charlestown Mayor Treva Hodges said. "It's probably the best news that we've received in quite a long time. Honestly, with how bad the water system was, I am impressed they got it turned around this quickly."
IAW said it has already invested more than $4-million into the community's water system for improvements.Â
"It took us a little bit of time to make sure that was the right decision to do," Southern Indiana Operations Manager Bill Reedy said. "We don't want to spend lots of people's time and money on the wrong thing, so we concluded that now is the time for that."
Reedy said there will not be a specific rate increase for the city's 3,000 customers because that was already tallied into the purchase and annual improvements.Â
For Charlestown residents, clean water is something they hope other cities don't take for granted.
"I will be able to turn on my faucet, pour myself a cup of water and drink it with no worries," Hodges said.
Related Stories:
- Water handed out to Charlestown residents as water company flushes lines
- Work begins on multimillion-dollar water main replacement project in southern Indiana
- Indiana American Water preparing for month-long flush of Charlestown's water system
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