The Mills River Water Treatment Plant — our area’s only source of running water for weeks after Helene — is getting a $23.3 million upgrade.
City officials broke ground on phase two of the Rehabilitation and Upgrade Project last week. This next phase contributes to the plant’s resiliency and lays important groundwork for phase three of the project, which will ultimately double the plant’s production capacity to account for population growth in our area and expand service beyond South Asheville.
Significant elements of this project include:
- Increasing the plant’s finished water storage capacity to 1.5 million gallons.
- A new backwash lagoon to prepare for an increase in treatment capacity.
- New switchgear for the plant’s emergency generator to provide more reliable power transfers during power loss situations.
City officials expect phase two to take three years to complete and to begin phase three in 2029.
