Planning Today for Tomorrow's Water Needs

Communities across the Wasatch Front continue to experience tremendous population growth.  It is estimated by 2025, Salt Lake City's water service area will have an additional 100,000 residents.  Sandy City is estimating an additional 30,000 new residents during the same time period.  Simply put, more people means greater water needs.

By 2015, it is estimated Salt Lake City and Sandy City residents will need an additional 19 million gallons per day to meet the population growth.

The Metro Water Project is a large public works project that when completed, will ensure Salt Lake City and Sandy City can meet future water needs. The Project includes the new Point of the Mountain Water Treatment Plant, expansion of the Little Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant, and the Point of the Mountain Aqueduct connecting the two.  The total cost for the projects is approximately $250 million.

Metro is working today to be ready to provide water to the growing populations of Salt Lake City and Sandy.  Metro's biggest project in the past 50 years is now under way and will be completed in the summer of 2007 to begin treatment and delivery of additional water to the valley.

Point of the Mountain Water Treatment Plant (POMWTP)

The District is currently in the process of building a new water treatment plant which is located in Draper.  The POMWTP will be a conventional treatment plant which uses the process of flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration in treating water.  This process will be enhanced by intermediate ozone and ultra violet (UV) disinfection.  Ozone is helpful in reducing taste and odor problems.  UV is used to disinfect viruses and/or bacteria.  At this time, it is anticipated that the POMWTP will be the largest ozone/UV/conventional water treatment plant in the United States.  A unique feature of the POMWTP is its location, which is directly below a world-class hang glider/paraglider launch.  This launch site is rated the 2^nd best in the world due to consistent trade winds which allow pilots to fly approximately 300 days out of the year.  To accommodate the launch site, the District has provided a safe emergency landing zone for these activities. 

Expansion of the Little Cottonwood Treatment Plant (LCWTP)

Every spring, run off from snow melt in Little Cottonwood Creek brings enormous amounts of water down the canyon.  To capture more of the water for treatment and distribution, Metro is expanding the Little Cottonwood Water Treatment Plant.  The purpose of this project is to increase diversions from Little Cottonwood Creek from 60 mgd (million gallons per day) to 143 mgd.  The project will encompass new raw water facilities, including a new diversion structure on Little Cottonwood Creek, a new grit chamber, a new screening building, a new flash mix facility, and modifications to the existing flocculation basins.  The project will also include preozonation to improve taste and odor control, provide primary disinfection, and reduce disinfection byproduct formation.  It is anticipated that the improvements will be completed by fall of 2005.  Additional on site improvements are being made at LCWTP to provide additional treated water storage and to prepare the site for the connection to the Point of the Mountain Aqueduct.

Point of the Mountain Aqueduct (POMA)

The third and perhaps the single most significant part of the project is the Point of the Mountain Aqueduct, a large diameter pipeline that consists of three miles of buried 84-inch diameter pipe for raw water conveyance and a 12-mile long buried treated water pipeline that will connect the two water treatment plants.  The treated water pipeline is 60-inches in diameter—large enough for a five foot tall person to stand inside.  The pipeline corridor runs through Draper and Sandy cities.  When completed, the pipeline will complete the connection between all water suppliers in the Salt Lake Valley allowing for better management of the valley's water resources.  The location of the new pipeline will improve the overall reliability of the system in the event of an earthquake.  The project will supply up to 70 million gallons per day of additional drinking water to the Salt Lake Valley.  The project is now in the construction phase.  Construction will last for approximately two years, with completion scheduled for December 2006.