Indiana American Water has been providing clean, safe water to the Northwest Indiana community for decades, but the company has recently taken the next step in safety by building a new disinfection treatment facility in Gary, Indiana. On Wednesday, September 28 community leaders and project partners gathered at the new facility to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebrate this great achievement.
The new facility in Gary, built on the grounds of a charming, but abandoned school, will allow the company to use a safer liquid form of chlorine in the water treatment process instead of its gaseous form. This will have immeasurable benefits for the community and make treating water even safer and more reliable than it already is. Over half of Indiana American Water’s facilities have already made the conversion to this safer form of water treatment.
Matthew Prine, President of Indiana American Water explained that even though customers probably won’t notice that there’s anything different with their water, it will have unbelievable benefits for the community’s safety.
“The reality is that water will continue to be disinfected at the quality level of standards that we already hold ourselves to, but it gives us that extra confidence that the community is well protected,” said Prine.
Everyone at the ribbon cutting was ecstatic to see how great the project turned out—people chatted about a job well done and even got the opportunity to tour the new facility. However, no one was as excited about the project as Prine. He’s grateful that accomplishments like these allow the company to show people just how committed it is to making their lives better.
“I love showing the community how invested we are in their future. Water typically gets forgotten—it’s not something we think much about—but it’s certainly something we use. Being able to tell our customers our story and about how much we put into their care daily is important,” said Prine.
Not only will the new facility continue to make the community an even safer place, but it will have tremendous benefits for the City of Gary.
“This project is a significant health and safety enhancement that aligns well with our plans to reduce the number of abandoned structures in Gary while providing significant new property tax revenue to the community as well,” said Trent McCain, Gary’s Deputy Mayor.
The project has ultimately been an all-around success. Stacy Hoffman, Director of Engineering, enjoyed the technical challenge of the project and is grateful he got to work with so many wonderful people. He’s pleased with how well everything turned out and couldn’t thank everyone enough for making the project happen.
“I’m so proud of all the fantastic work everybody has done to design and build such a high-quality facility that will provide reliable, clean water service for our customers,” said Hoffman.
Plans are already underway to convert the rest of Indiana American Water’s facilities to this safer water treatment method. The day’s celebration truly shows how committed Indiana American Water is to the communities it serves and how far it will go to make the Region a safer, healthier place.
To learn more about Indiana American Water and its mission to provide the community with clean and safe water, visit https://www.amwater.com/inaw/.
