City Breaks Ground on New Water Quality Laboratory
State-of-the-Art Facility Will Further Ensure High-Quality Drinking Water
September 10, 2020
For more than 100 years, the City of Tallahassee has provided residents with clean, safe, reliable drinking water. Today, the City of Tallahassee officially kicked off construction of its new Water Quality Laboratory with a groundbreaking event at the Thomas P. Smith Water Reclamation Facility, located at 4505 Springhill Road.
“This new state-of-the-art laboratory will further ensure the City of Tallahassee’s ability to continue providing clean, reliable and safe drinking water to our community for years to come,” Mayor John Dailey said. “From robust testing to routine field maintenance to rebates on water-saving household appliances, the City works diligently to protect, provide and preserve this vital resource to the community.”
The Thomas P. Smith Water Reclamation Facility has the capacity to treat 26.5 million gallons of water a day. The on-site laboratory, which was originally constructed in 1966, is staffed by analysts who routinely collect and analyze water samples to ensure drinking water provided to customers meets and surpasses all state and federal drinking standards. Annually, the laboratory performs 30,000 tests on the community’s drinking water. The laboratory is certified by the Florida Department of Health and the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program.
Due to the age of the laboratory, an architectural evaluation determined that necessary facility improvements could not be practically undertaken while maintaining laboratory operations. Thus, the evaluation recommended the construction of a new laboratory building.
The new, state-of-the-art Water Quality Laboratory will be constructed near the existing laboratory. Construction of the 8,720 square-foot building will be overseen by local firm, CSI Contracting Inc., and is anticipated to last 12 months.
To ensure residents reliably receive high-quality water directly from their tap, the City maintains an extensive infrastructure, including 27 deep water supply wells, eight elevated storage tanks and over 1,200 miles of distribution piping with a 24/7 monitoring and control system. The construction of the new Water Quality Laboratory will ensure that the City continues providing best-in-class water services to the community.
To learn more about the City’s water services and to read the 2020 Water Quality Report, visit Talgov.com.
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