Upgrades Completed At Hammond Filtration Plant

Hammond IN

11 September, 2020

11:53 AM

Description

From the City of Hammond: September 10, 2020 The City of Hammond and Mayor Thomas M. McDermott, Jr. are proud to announce the completion of a $6 million expansion and upgrade to the city's filtration plant. The upgrades were made on the 1950's and 1970's electrical equipment due to the lack of replacement parts and support for the old equipment and the ability to upgrade technology. Additionally, as electrical equipment ages, the insulation system becomes less effective, resulting in an increase in the frequency of maintenance and subsequent costs. The project included new switch gears, motor starters and generators to name a few. A 1982 750KW generator was replaced with an auto start, EPA emission compliant 1,000KW generator. The plant can now produce 50MGD of water under diesel generator power. The new filtration system received its first test unexpectedly on Monday, August 12th when incoming NIPSCO power was lost due to the severe thunderstorm that went through the area. However, with the implemented new upgrades to the system, the power was seamlessly transferred to the plants. Thus, the plant's functions were restored in a matter of minutes, ensuring all Hammond residents did not experience any water shortages along with the widespread power outage we were dealing with. The project engineer was CDM Smith and the contractor was Meade Electric. The project was approximately $6 million with a life cycle of the improvements being 20-25 years. The goal is to increase reliability and redundancy so that our vital plant never loses electric power. This press release was produced by the City of Hammond. The views expressed here are the author's own.