Reform works to build new water plant
Operations Manager for Insight Engineering Jonathan Bonner says the current water system in Reform hasn't been updated since 1923, and every day, it's on the verge of collapse.
REFORM, Ala. (WCBI) -For a while, the city of Reform has been in deep water in a difficult situation with its water supply.
The city is working to fix the situation and they are in the midst of building a new water plant.
Mayor Melody Davis has made it her mission to build new wells and water lines in the city of Reform.
“To see actual water coming out of the ground has been a prayer that I’ve been praying since I first became a mayor,” Davis said.
Operations Manager for Insight Engineering Jonathan Bonner says the current water system in Reform hasn’t been updated since 1923, and every day, it’s on the verge of collapse.
“We suffered several catastrophic losses in 2020, 2021 where we completely lost water to the entire city,” Bonner said.
The city currently has one water supply.
The limited supply, inadequate storage, water leaks, and the aged system call for a lot of time spent working to maintain, and they lose about 50% of the water they produce when these leaks occur.
“The first catastrophe of my mayorship, we had about 30% of our residents without water,” Davis said. “They went for almost a week. They weren’t able to drink water, bathe, wash, or anything and it was very frustrating.”
The next phase of the project will be to make the water system more resilient overall.
“Right now, generally, if there’s a leak in any one system, right now the only recourse is to turn off the water to the entire town to fix a small leak,” Bonner said. “So, we’re working to fix those pipes.”
Bonner says the next steps are to get test results back from the new well, put up a new water tank, and build a new water treatment plant.
As a Reform native, he says it means an awful lot to be able to help the town have adequate, clean, safe drinking water
“I’m really happy,” Bonner said.
“To see us get to this point is like a sigh of relief,” we just have to walk it out, be prayerful, be patient, but we are here. We are at the point where we’ll see a rainbow at the end of this dark tunnel.”
Right now, the money they have for this project has to be spent by September of next year.
