Advancing Efficiencies and Investing in Reliability at our Platte South Water Production Facility

Since 1968, the Platte South Water Production Facility has been providing safe, reliable water to Metropolitan Utilities District’s customers. As time goes on, equipment becomes outdated and critical replacement parts are hard to find. The District has developed a strategic plan to tackle these challenges to keep the plant’s quality above federal and state standards.

Platte South is undergoing a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to modernize the plant. The estimated time of completion for the program is between 10 and 15 years, with an estimated total cost of $180 million. The CIP is currently in its second phase.

Phase One of the program focused on the plant’s infrastructure, which included three areas: addition of an administrative building, building a new site entrance and enhancing security upgrades. Future phases will include a new electrical building and wellfield upgrades.

The arching overall goal of the CIP can be summarized in two words – redundancy and resiliency. Plant Director Kris Thompson is overseeing the CIP.

When asked about the long-term community impact, he said, “The more redundancy we have, the fewer chances we’ll ever need to ask customers to limit their water use. This project makes sure we can keep delivering, no matter what.” He added, “Everything we do here is about resiliency. When storms roll in or power goes out, we need to know we can keep producing water. These new generators and electrical systems will make sure we can.”

This plan will ultimately make future maintenance more efficient and less disruptive, which will greatly benefit our customer-owners. The plan promises improved service reliability, long-term future longevity, fewer power outages/disruptions and a monumental extension of the plant’s life.