Indiana American Water Company, a subsidiary of American Water Company, on Friday joined local and state officials, community leaders and project partners at a ribbon cutting to mark completion of a nearly $10 million upgrade of its wastewater treatment facility in Sheridan.
“The investments we have made in the Sheridan wastewater system since acquiring it in 2018 will enable it to come back into compliance with state and federal regulations and give the town the ability to grow again,” said Indiana American Water President Matt Prine. “These improvements will provide significant additional treatment capacity so we can treat wastewater that historically has overflowed or been bypassed into the environment.”
The Sheridan wastewater system had received numerous notices of violation of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit over the years following many bypass and overflow events related to limited treatment plant capacity for flows coming to the plant during wet weather.
“Much of the existing wastewater infrastructure in Sheridan was put in place decades ago and was nearing the end of its useful life,” said Prine. “The sale of the system to Indiana American Water allowed us to bring the expertise, economies of scale and needed capital to provide a solution to issues the town was facing. At the same time, it also gave them the resources to focus on other community needs and priorities.”
“We appreciate Indiana American Water following through on their commitment to help our community address our water and wastewater issues,” said Sheridan Town Council President David Kinkead. “This community has a lot of future growth potential, and the investments Indiana American Water is making in our local infrastructure will help to make Sheridan an even better place for our residents and businesses.”
The project triples the plant’s ability to handle peak daily flows – the largest volume of flow during a continuous 24-hour period – during wet-weather events and includes adding a larger capacity influent pumping and screening facility, an additional larger capacity clarifier, a second aeration treatment basin, and enhancements to the plant’s electrical, chemical feed, supervisory control and data acquisition, and disinfection systems.
With the improvements in place, the plant can treat approximately one million gallons of average daily flow – twice as much as before the improvements, and three million gallons of peak daily flow during wet weather conditions, three times as much as before.
The design firm of Wessler Engineering, and the construction firm of Reynolds Construction, designed and constructed the new facility.
Indiana American Water has also made significant investments in the Sheridan water system, which was also part of the acquisition. The company has invested more than $2 million in the community’s water treatment facility to replace the aerator and filter media, improve chemical feed and disinfection equipment, remove lead service lines and replace a pump at one of the wells used to supply groundwater to the system.
Indiana American Water’s serves approximately 2,500 water and wastewater customers in Sheridan, or a population of more than 3,000 residents.