The water has been flowing since December, but a ribbon cutting ceremony and public tours were held yesterday (June 13, 2023) at Pierre’s new drinking water treatment plant (821 W. Dakota Avenue).
Mayor Steve Harding says after a community vote showed strong support for improving water quality, they considered six different locations to build the $37.5 million facility.
In December 2022, the facility started distributing potable water, and by mid-January 2023 the transition from ground water to treated Missouri River surface water was complete. On average, the plant produced about 2.72 million gallons of water a day. However, the plant has additional capacity to serve Pierre well into the future. Maximum production capacity is 8.8 million gallons a day.
