Sixty years ago, we celebrated a monumental achievement for our region – the first delivery of water from our water treatment plant in Wylie. This month, we honored that milestone with an Open House for our Member Cities and Customers. See news release here.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 60 years since our first water treatment plant opened on Nov. 8, 1956 with a capacity to treat up to 20 million gallons of water per day (MGD). It’s even harder to believe that plant is still in operation today and is part of a larger complex of four water treatment plants capable of treating up to 770 MGD.

Our cities and customers were well represented by the host of mayors, city managers, council members, public works directors, board directors and staff that came to celebrate with us. Visitors explored our Open House displays to learn more about the valuable services we offer such as laboratory testing, geographical information systems, watershed protection programs, wastewater treatment, maintenance and communications.

Otis the Otter and Farrah the Fox, brand ambassadors for our WaterIQ campaigns, were on site and eager to greet our guests. Guests also participated in tours of our water treatment facilities to see the “Journey of Water” and get a close up look of the complexities of the water treatment process. Learn more about the Journey of Water.

Wylie Water Treatment Plant, 1956

Wylie Water Treatment Plant, 2016

Open House guests visit one of our raw water pump stations to see how much power it takes to pull water out of Lavon Lake.

The sedimentation basin is where 90% of the floating particles from the lake are removed.

Ozone disinfection is an intricate process and is our primary method of disinfecting the water. These generators pull a lot of energy to create ozone for this process.

Our control room operator shows city representatives how he monitors the distribution of treated drinking water to the storage tanks in their communities.