The Moss Water Treatment Plant is located on the northeast side of the City of Hopkinsville, on Metcalfe Lane and is named after the previous General Manager of HWEA, McKenzie Moss. Construction of the plant began in 1995 and the plant went online producing water in May 1997. In 2012 the plant was expanded and renovated. Currently the plant has a design capacity of 15 million gallons per day. The treatment plant serves drinking water to Hopkinsville, Pembroke, Crofton and the Christian County Water District. The plant processes raw water from Lake Barkley in a 27 mile pipeline to Hopkinsville. HWEA also maintains a separate raw water supply at it’s North Quarry. The Lake Barkley raw water intake and pipeline has a capacity of 20 MGD, projected to meet the needs of Hopkinsville – Christian County over the next 50 years.
Listed below are the stages of treatment:
- Coagulation: Raw water treated with aluminum sulphate, carbon, potassium permanganate, and chlorine flows through a static mixer vault so that larger solids can form for the settling process.
- Clarification: Treated water passes through while the sludge blanket and solids begin to settle out.
- Filtration: Remaining solids are filtered out using dual media filters (anthracite and sand).
- Disinfection: Filtered water is chlorinated and fluoridated before leaving the plant.
- Corrosion control: Treated water is dosed with caustic soda and polyphosphate to reduce corrosivity.
Water quality monitoring is an important part of the treatment process. Parameters such as pH, turbidity, and free and total chlorine are checked through the plant every 4 hours. Hardness, alkalinity, iron, manganese, and fluoride levels are checked daily on the raw and finished water. Bacteriological monitoring, which consists of 50 samples a month taken on the distribution system as well as numerous process control samples, is performed on-site in our state certified bacteriological laboratory. An independent commercial laboratory is contracted to perform all other compliance monitoring as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Parameters included in this monitoring cover everything from metals to pesticides. The Moss WTP has received received several awards since the beginning of operations. Please see our Awards web page for a listing. Moss WTP is staffed 24/7 by a team consisting of a Supervisor, Chief Operator, Laboratory Technician, and 7 Kentucky Certified operators.
Please note that the Moss WTP is closed to the public. Please contact the main office at 270-887-4246 to make an appointment.
