By Ricky Rieckert
(Final part)
Dear readers, please join me as we finish the history of Aurora’s water.
In 1987, in anticipation of the rapid growth of the southeast section of the City, the five million gallon Southeast Standpipe and Booster section was completed.
Shortly before that, in 1986, City officials authorized Crawford, Murphy and Tilly Inc. (CMT), Consulting Engineers, Springfield, Ill., to perform an engineering study of Aurora’s water supply and distribution system.
This was done to investigate water supply alternatives to meet the City’s long-term needs, and to achieve compliance with federal radium standards with a deadline of July 1, 1990.
CMT completed the original Water Master Plan in 1987, and was subsequently commissioned to design a new River Intake Facility and Water Treatment Plant (WTP), as a part of 40 million water works improvement program.
At that time, it was Aurora’s largest single construction project, with a cost of $19.76 million.
In April 1992, the WTP was placed in operation and Aurora was again drawing upon the Fox River for its municipal water supply, for the first time in approximately 100 years.
The WTP treatment processes includes lime softening (to remove hardness), coagulation, recarbonation, (to reduce pH after softening to a more stable level), high-rate filtration, fluoridation, and disinfection.
During the 1990s Aurora’s growth continued. In 1998, CMT completed a Water Master Plan Update.
This eventually led to the WTP Expansion, which was completed in 2002 and provided one additional “ClariCone” softening / coagulation unit, additional high-rate filters, and two new 1.13 million gallon clearwells to provide additional contact time for disinfection and finished water storage capacity.
Additional wells and storage have been constructed. In 2003, the new four million gallon Barnes Road Standpipe was completed, and an adjacent booster station was placed in operation in 2006.
In 2005, a 1.5 million gallon storage tank was constructed near Phillips Park, to replace the aging Hill Avenue Elevated Tank.
Today, the City has a total of 16 deep wells and six shallow wells, and 17.5 million gallons of operational distribution system storage tank capacity.
Over the years Aurora has taken great steps in improving its water: From the 1840s, gathering water from a spring at the foot of a bluff near what is now Lincoln Avenue and Spring Street, to present day with a capacity of 17.5 million gallons. With these strides, Aurora’s quality has improved greatly and has even won awards for the best water in the State.
I hope you found this article interesting in regards to the original water sourcing, all the way to the present, in the city of Aurora.
Have a nice week. I might have the tour bus out and about next week.