PELL CITY – After more than eight years of planning, the new surface water treatment facility is a go.

“Construction should begin the first or second week of November,” said Mike Walraven, with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, Inc., who is the project engineer for the $32 million surface water treatment plant project.

At Wednesday’s meeting, members of the Coosa Valley Water Supply District unanimously approved the execution of the bond issue.

Matt Adams, vice president of public finance group for Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., said the bonds for the project were sold Wednesday morning, and Coosa Valley Water Supply District received a lower than anticipated bond rate of 4.48 percent.

“You will have a (annual) $2.04 million debt service for the next 30 years,” he said.

Adams said Coosa Valley Water Supply District will begin paying off the bond issue in 2012, after the surface water treatment facility is in operation.

Bond attorney Joseph “Jodie” Smith with Maynard Cooper & Gale had Coosa Valley Water Supply District officials sign the bond purchase agreement after the meeting and announced the official closing date on the bond issue is Thursday, Oct. 22.

The water authority agreed to hold their next meeting at 11 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 22, in the Maynard Cooper & Gale law offices in Birmingham. The water authority will hold a short meeting and sign closing documents at the law office.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the authority approved the low bids submitted for three different projects of the surface water treatment plant project, including the construction of the $11.4 million surface water treatment facility in Ragland.

The authority awarded between $21-22 million in contract work.

Walraven said the water intake project was not bid out, because the water supply district hopes to secure a federal grant to pay for that work.

Walraven said the intake portion of the surface water treatment plant project is estimated to cost another $5 million, but the Coosa Valley Water Supply District secured funds for that project through the bond issue in case the district is unable to secure the grant.

Walraven said the wholesale cost of the Coosa Valley Water Supply District water is estimated to cost about $2.30 per 1,000 gallons, which is about 20-cents less than first anticipated.

Adams said the monthly bond debt payment for the Coosa Valley Water Supply District is about $170,000 a month, which means each member of the water supply district, St. Clair County, Odenville, Springville and Pell City is expected to pay $42,500 per month for the 750,000 gallons of water each entity is required to purchase each day from the surface water treatment facility.

Construction of the surface water treatment facility is expected to be completed within 18 months from the start of construction, officials say.

The surface water treatment facility will initially pump 3 mgd (million gallons a day) of treated surface water.

The plant is capable of producing 6 mgd of treated surface water without any capital improvements. However, the facility is designed to pump as much as 12 mgd of treated water.

At Wednesday’s meeting, engineers talked about the added cost of installing bigger water lines over the mountain to Odenville and Springville, so more water could be supplied to the west end of St. Clair County for possible additional water customers.

Engineers said a $290,000 change order could increase the capacity to pump water over the mountain to Odenville and Springville from 3.2 mgd to 4.3 mgd.