Softer water coming to East Dundee

An East Dundee water treatment project 10 years in the making is a step closer to completion. The village board Tuesday chose Triumph Development Corp. of Elgin to build a water treatment facility in the Prairie Lakes Industrial Park. Soon the village will have access to softer, better quality water.

Tim Wilson has been the East Dundee water superintendent for 12 years, since the village first looked into building this facility.

"It's been a long time coming," Wilson said.

Wilson said a start date for construction of the plant, which will be built over one shallow and one deep well that were dug two years ago, will be decided in the next couple months. The village will receive a low-interest loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and is awaiting final paperwork to move forward with the $3.4 million project. The entire structure will likely be built in one year, Wilson said.

Trustee Lael Miller looks forward to progress after so many years of planning.

"The wells are in place and we just need to put a building on top of them that would include all the hardware, basically," Miller said. "That will ensure filtered and softened drinking water to everyone in East Dundee."

The facility will pump water up through the wells, soften it and treat it for distribution throughout the community. Currently if residents want to avoid hardness that can cause scale buildup in water heaters or a film residue on shower walls, among other problems, they must soften the water themselves by adding salt to their water supply.

Besides providing better quality water, the new facility replaces an antiquated one. That gives officials confidence the water system will hold up over time. Trustee Jeff Lynam said this is the most important part about the step forward.

"This isn't just for today," Lynam said. "Right now we're in OK shape, but this is the future for us."