Call it the $16.5 million solution to dirty laundry.
In January, a state-of-the-art regional water treatment plant is scheduled to open deep in the Mattapoisett woods. When it does, officials say, it will remove the high level of iron and manganese in the water that stains laundry, discolors sinks, and plugs up pipes. And that means towns won't have to close their wells because of the mineral nuisance.
The plant offers another advantage: It is part of a regional solution at a time when cost-sharing measures are essential.
The Mattapoisett River Valley Water District was created three years ago with member towns Mattapoisett, Marion, and Fairhaven. Some of the towns' wells that fed each community's water-supply system had been shut down due to high levels of iron and manganese, said William Nicholson, Mattapoisett water and sewer superintendent, who will oversee operation of the new $16.5 million plant.
"Each town had considered building a water treatment plant, but the cost was prohibitive," Nicholson said. By forming a collaborative to address the issue, he said, the towns saved a collective $5 million.
Ground was broken in September 2006, with each town's cost determined by usage. Fairhaven picked up the bulk of the bill with $9.1 million, Mattapoisett's share was $5 million, and Marion's $2.4 million. All three appropriations passed their respective town meetings
The new building has miles of piping and tubing, and gigantic holding tanks for water treatment. The project includes 4 miles of new water mains to bring water from the towns' collective 13 wells to the plant and out again.
"I liken it to the old days when dairy farmers would bring their milk to one place to be pasteurized, and then it was sent out," Nicholson said. "It's a good regional approach."
Iron and manganese have always been a problem, he said. But the problem has grown more serious as the demand for water increases.
"Everyone's pumping more water," he said. "Irrigation systems are huge water users, for example, and the more water you pull out of the wells, the more it draws those minerals out of the ground."
Water will be fed into the plant via massive pipes, treated by a variety of methods, including blasting it with ozone to separate the iron content, and then sent to dozens of filters before it's pumped out. Dried iron and manganese can be mixed with road-building material, Nicholson said. Sludge will be shipped to treatment plants, he said.
In East Bridgewater last year, voters passed a $14 million, two-phase project to build two iron-manganese plants to treat water from the town's five wells and to replace the community's ancient water-main system. Some parts of that system were more than 100 years old, said Selectman Peter A. Hamilton.
That project should be done by fall 2008, he said. Other local plants already up and running are in West Bridgewater, which treats two wells, and Middleborough, which treats 11 wells.
The Mattapoisett plant is the first water-treatment facility in the district's member towns, Nicholson said. Currently, water is treated at each well's pumping station for pH balance and acidity, he said, but not to remove iron and manganese.
The idea that that problem will finally be eliminated is, he said, "pretty exciting."
Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at Kandarian@globe.com.
