Seward’s new water tower is in service.
City Administrator Greg Butcher said Aug. 28 that the new tower is being monitored, but residents should not experience any change in their water service as the result of the changeover.
Water quality and pressure should be the same as with the old water tower.
“That is why we did all this work is to make it the same, but have some more capacity in the system,” Butcher said.
If the transition goes without issues, the city will begin moving equipment – like communication antennae – from the old water tower to the new and disconnecting the old tower from the city’s water system.
Butcher said the city waited to take the old tower offline until now because the highest water usage occurs in the summer months and the city did not want the demand to be an issue if any glitches occurred.
Once the tower function is switched completely and the old tower is removed, the area around the tower will be cleaned up.
Then, Butcher said, the city will likely start evaluating the reverse osmosis water treatment plant’s performance and capacity issues for the future. The plant was expanded in recent years, but the city’s water demand is increasing.
The treatment plant is the “biggest choke point in our system” if there are high demands for water, he said. The city will be studying needs for refurbishing the plant, as well as expansion in the future.
