SUN HERALD
By Vivan Austin
Friday, October 12, 2007
GROUND BROKEN FOR MOSS POINT WATER PLANT
Residents attending a groundbreaking Thursday for the city's reverse-osmosis treatment plant were told the filtration system ... [marks] the beginning of a new Moss Point.
"The result of this water-treatment system will be water which is crystal clear, free of sediment, free of taste and organic odors," said Robert Casselberry, remediation program manager for Rohm & Haas Corp. "And no spots on your dishes when you're done, no spots on your clothes when they come out of the washing machine, and your coffee and tea will taste like you've always expected it to taste."
Casselberry was among about 75 state and city officials, business people and residents from Moss Point and other cities who attended the groundbreaking.
The ceremony, which featured Gov. Haley Barbour as guest speaker, was held at the plant's two-acre site at Meridian and Palmetto streets, where 11 gold-covered shovels were used to turn dirt for the start of construction. The work should be completed in about a year.
Mayor Xavier Bishop said the water-filtration system initially was the result of a partnership between Moss Point and Rohm & Haas, which was fined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for contamination of Moss Point water wells. The partnership expanded after Hurricane Katrina, which slowed the reverse-osmosis project by a year.
Barbour said the state was given $5.2 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for disaster recovery. The Governor's Office, through the state Department of Environmental Quality, allocated $641 million for the Gulf Region Water and Wastewater Plan, which recommended using the money for infrastructure projects in five South Mississippi counties
Moss Point is receiving $3.9 million for engineering, which will expand to $6.1 million for plant construction.
"This is an example that Mississippi is coming back bigger and better than ever," the governor said.
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