The City of Newton recently announced the completion of its First Street water tank. The city has been working since 2016 to replace a 3.1 million gallon water tank located nearby with two concrete 1.9 million gallon tanks. In 2021, the city purchased property to build the new tanks on from BNSF, due to the closeness of the location to existing infrastructure that serves the old tank. The project began in May of 2022 and then was put on hold for 10 months by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment due to new pollution being discovered on the property. Over that time period, costs of the project increased, and the city estimated it would pay $1.57 million extra to complete the project when it discussed the issue in May. The total estimate of the project was $8.3 million. The city took work back up and in a recent release reported the first tank to be ready for the chlorination process to begin in January. In the coming months, work will begin on demolishing the old water tank as well as installing the second water tank. The exterior of the old water tank has turned a mostly green, black color due to the City choosing not to clean or repaint it since it was slated for demolition.
Source: Harvey County Now
