Hartford breaks ground on $22 million wastewater treatment facility

HARTFORD, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The Hartford community has some new infrastructure on the way with a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility.

Growth in the Hartford area has prompted city leadership to begin the construction phase of the project.

The current wastewater lagoon system was put in place in Hartford back in 2002. The city knew at that time that it would only last for 20 to 25 years. The new facility that Hartford is moving to, can treat and discharge on a daily basis. The maximum population that the lagoons were designed to handle was 3,516 – which Hartford is close to. The current lagoons do not account for industrial growth. The new plant will allow for an aggressive growth rate per year, plus industrial capacity.

The new wastewater treatment facility will help process around 1.5 million gallons of water a day. This accounts for yearly growth and the addition of major industry coming to the area.

A feasibility study helped evaluate the need for this in western Minnehaha County and city leaders said this will be monumental in the coming years.

“It’s the biggest project we’ll probably ever do in our city. We’ve done some road projects that we thought, ‘Boy, that was a lot of money to spend for a road.’ Nothing in comparison to this. This is a $20 million plus project. For a town the size of Hartford, this is a big deal,” said Hartford Mayor Arden Jones.

The estimated completion date will be the summer of 2025.

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