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Sacramento water treatment plant to get multi-million-dollar makeover

Sacramento to upgrade water treatment plant with multi-million-dollar plan
Sacramento to upgrade water treatment plant with multi-million-dollar plan 02:04

Each year, Sacramento needs about a million more gallons of water per day to meet growing demand. Soon, the city's water treatment plants will have a tough time keeping up. 

A new multi-million dollar plan aims to modernize the system, ensuring Sacramento's future is flush with water. 

"It's not something everyone gets excited about but it's really, really important," said. 

The city unveiled a plan called Water+. It will double the daily capacity of the existing Sacramento River water treatment plant, just off Interstate 5 and Richards Boulevard. 

"It's improving our water system to be more resilient and more able to adapt to some of the modern challenges that we experience," said. 

The plant dates back to 1921 and some of the aging infrastructure needs to be replaced. 

The city said that modernizing the facility will help comply with environmental regulations and provide reliable water that filters out more river contaminants. 

"We've got things like cyano algae toxic blooms that kind of pop up from time to time that can affect our ability to manage drinking water," said. 

But there's no way for the current plant to expand its property size, so said "we need to be able to figure out how we can most efficiently use the space that we do have." 

That means some of the historical landmark buildings will be impacted. The plan also calls for adding an additional water intake pumping station on the Sacramento River just upstream from the existing one near Matsui Park. 

That will help provide more water for future city growth. 

"This project is being phased out over long term so that we can be able to address the water needs of that growth," said. 

So far, there's no estimate on how much the project will cost. The city's utility department is expected to release an environmental impact report this spring.

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