City of Orange Beach Announces Groundbreaking for Waste Water Treatment Facility Monday, January 28, 2008 at 1pmJanuary 18, 2008
By Ken Grimes, Jr, Special Projects Coordinator
When describing the Alabama Gulf Coast, most would think of the beautiful sandy white beaches, condo’s overlooking the emerald waters of the gulf, a sunset over Wolf Bay or spending the day on one of many islands. One rarely hears anyone speak of the infrastructure expansion, garbage disposal, under-grounding of utilities or the treatment of waste water but they are the vital services of any community . . . even a resort town like Orange Beach. City leaders have been planning for such improvements to infrastructure services for years as the growth of the city’s population along with the addition of thousands of units of vacation rentals which attract on peak weekends an estimated 100,000 plus tourists. On January 28th, the next step in future expansion becomes a reality.
Mayor Blalock and the Orange Beach City Council are pleased to announce the official groundbreaking ceremony for the new City of Orange Beach Waste Water Treatment Plant. The ceremony will begin at 1 PM on Monday, January 28, 2008 at the site which is located south of Canal Road between the Sportsplex and Powerline Road. A shuttle bus will be provided from the Orange Beach Sportsplex located at the end of William Silvers Parkway to the site as construction access is not paved for public travel at this time. According to Mayor Pete Blalock, “this new facility has been a long time in the works and we are extremely happy to be under construction to not only be prepared for future growth, but to finally relocate our existing plant away from heavily traveled Canal Road. The new plant will have an enclosed head-works along with the more isolated location to eliminate most odors affiliated with the service.”
The new facility will be built on approximately twenty acres within a total site of forty acres which allows for plenty of room for future growth. Mayor Blalock noted “the construction should take between 18-20 months for completion and our plant is designed by Gary McMillan and the City of Orange Beach will serve as general contractor on the project as we minimize expenses and maximize our effort.” Jeff Hartley, Utilities Director for the City of Orange Beach adds “the new Waste Water Treatment Plant will be a state of the art 10 million gallons per day plant (MGD), and will be expandable to 15 MGD. The plant is designed to serve the City’s needs for at least the next 20 years and it will replace the City’s current facility on Canal Road, which will be demolished upon completion of the new plant in 2009”. The public is invited to attend this unique event. If you need further directions, please feel free to contact Orange Beach City Hall at (251) 981-6979 or search www.CityOfOrangeBeach.com for details.
