MOLINE, Ill. — A project two years in the making is now complete, as a shared water supply connection between Moline and Silvis officially goes live.
Employees at Moline's water treatment plant on Wednesday opened the valves to go live with the new shared connection.
Moline city officials said Silvis residents should start experiencing better water pressure from their taps and Moline residents should see more stable and lower water rates.
For years Silvis has struggled with low water pressure issues using its existing wells, while Moline has reserve capacity in its system, which treats and distributes water from the Mississippi River. Moline began discussing sharing water with Silvis officials in Nov. 2021 and in Feb. 2022, made a formal proposal to connect the two water systems.
In April 2022, both city councils passed an intergovernmental agreement and permitting, engineering design and construction to set up the water connection started shortly after.
“This week, the project has come to completion, resulting in a mutually beneficial situation for each community,” said Tony Loete, Moline’s Director of Utilities.
Moline will supply around 400,000 gallons of water per day to Silvis. Loete said this shared connection will allow rate increases for Moline residents to be deferred or postponed, even as operating costs increase. This new Silvis hookup is expected to bring in around $327,000 in additional annual revenue to the Moline water fund.
“The city of Moline and city of Silvis have continued to build on their existing relationship and in the spirit of intergovernmental cooperation opened yet another door to mutually serve the needs of our two communities,” said Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas.
As of Wednesday, the Moline Water Treatment Plant is showing an uptick in production from 4.6 million gallons per day to 4.9 million gallons.
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