FEATURE PAGE May 11, 2023

An earthen berm topped with evergreens will provide new screening of the Smithfield Water Filtration Plant in response to requests from residents of the nearby North Smithfield Historic District.

Besides that, the grounds around the plant's facilities have been spruced up with newly planted grass and the driveways repaved. In addition, chain-link fencing and entrance gates topped with barbed wire now guard the plant's perimeter, and the roadway connecting Second Street and Hospital Road has been permanently closed to through traffic.

Let's take a brief tour of Smithfield's
newly expanded Water Filtration Plant

Steve Lane, the water plant's superintendent, took a small group on a tour of the new facilities following last Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony. Here are the highlights:



First stop outside the main building was the maze of filtration basins where untreated water is allowed to settle out extraneous materials. Visitors are looking over one of the new additions to that operation.




A new addition to the main building houses new pumps "for filter backwash, raw water, and processed water." A fourth treatment filter has been added to the plant along with a new electrical-control room and new generators for emergency power.




New facilities viewed from the main building are a million-gallon in-ground storage tank and an in-ground backwash tank. The Wooten Company of Raleigh provided engineering for the project. Shook Construction of Apex was the general contractor.




Superintendent Lane shows nearby residents Pam Lampe and Emma Alice Gemmell a new second reservoir for storage of water pumped out of the Neuse River. Behind them is the original reservoir. Construction of the second required relocation of the Buffalo Creek Greenway trail, which last week was awaiting a final application of asphalt before it can be used by pedestrians and bicycles passing through the water plant's "campus.

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