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On
the Move with Cleaner Water:
Lawrence’s New Water Treatment Plant
09/01/06
 This month I would like to
highlight a great project that is going to help transform
Lawrence into a more prosperous city. This terrific
multi-million dollar project is on time and on budget and
is already 90% complete. No, I’m not referring to
the new Lawrence High School, I’m referring to the
new Lawrence water treatment plant.
This state-of-the-art facility is the first one in over
70 years and will almost double the capacity for Lawrence
to produce clear, potable water. It will truly benefit
everyone who lives, works and visits the city of
Lawrence.
This multi-barrier filter system employs the latest in
water purification technology, including ultraviolet
light, which will cut down on some of the chemicals that
have to be added to the water. This will lend itself to
cleaner, safer and better tasting drinking water.
Another great feature of this new plant is its ability to
produce up to 16 million gallons of water per day. With
the city of Lawrence having an average usage of eight or
nine million gallons of water per day, this will allow
for some anticipated growth in our huge mill buildings
without having to worry about whether or not the water
supply can sustain expansion throughout the city. This is
a great advantage for the city’s ability to expand
our community development.
Also, with a raw water source like the mighty Merrimack
River, we can even sell water to our neighboring
communities or tanker trucks in time of drought or if
their supply should become polluted.
This project was many years in the making and I’m
proud to say it is another milestone for the city and the
Sullivan administration. It took a lot of hard work and
many people working together to get this accomplished.
The funding for this project is a loan from the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ revolving trust fund
which lends money to cities and towns at a bargain
basement rate of 2 1/2% interest. This project was so
important to them, that they lifted the cap of $6 million
and lent the city of Lawrence $32.5 million in order to
live up to the consent order we signed with the
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This
consent order is almost 15 years old and has many other
concerns that are being addressed. The reservoir has been
covered and alarmed, metering is being addressed, as well
as a lot of distribution work which will be accomplished
over the next five years.
The new electronic metering system will allow for home
meters to be read remotely so as not to inconvenience the
homeowners of Lawrence with appointments and estimated
charges. It will also improve accuracy which will
increase municipal revenues and allow for electronic
billing.
This project was designed and built by Camp, Dresser and
McKee, who are in the top 20 engineering firms in the
United States.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they brought
over 50 years of water treatment experience to the
project and it showed. They were not only the most
preferred in design but finished first in pricing as
well, which made them an easy choice to be the project
team.
Another benefit to the low-profile design on Water Street
is that it maximized the waterfront site. This will allow
for a future park with either active or passive
recreation on the north side of the city. Tower Hill and
lower Tower Hill residents could really use another park
and the Merrimack River makes for a beautiful setting.
Yes, this new water treatment facility and water front
park is just another example of how Lawrence is on the
move!
Lawrence Mayor Mike Sullivan is in his
second term and can be reached at sull33@aol.com.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The September, 2006
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 9,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Hampton & Salisbury
Beach, and Lowell.
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