In October 2023, Indiana American Water invited Charlestown, Indiana, residents to see how the community’s new $16 million water treatment plant would provide clear, filtered water. PENETRON ADMIX SB, a crystalline waterproofing admixture, was specified for the plant’s concrete structures.
"Due to the high iron and manganese content of the region’s groundwater, Charlestown residents have endured discolored drinking water for decades,” explains Christopher Chen, Director of the Penetron Group. “The previous facility was outdated. It simply drew water out of the ground, added the appropriate chemicals and sent it out to the town’s drinking water system.”
Located on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Indiana, Charlestown has around 8,000 inhabitants. The new facility, with double the treatment capacity of the previous water treatment plant, is expected to exceed the town’s growing residential and industrial demand, which is expected to increase with the completion of the River Ridge Commerce Center, an expansive business and industrial park currently under development.
In order to address the long-standing high manganese levels present in the town’s groundwater, Indiana American Water, a water and wastewater services provider for Indiana, added a system of high-pressure filters to the plant design to remove sediment and other impurities in the water. In addition, improvements to the system’s pumping equipment increases the flow of water for improved fire protection capabilities (fire hydrants!), and utilizes sodium hypochlorite to disinfect the water, which is a much safer disinfectant than the gaseous chlorine used in the previous treatment process. The new plant will be able to provide 4 million gallons per day, with additional capacity up to 6 million/day if needed.
The concrete in the new water treatment plant, including the clear well, contact tanks, and pump station was treated by imi, the ready-mix concrete supplier, with PENETRON ADMIX SB. Certified by NSF for use with potable water, the crystalline waterproofing admixture stops water and chemicals from entering the concrete, even under the constant hydrostatic pressure encountered in a water treatment plant. Its ability to permanently self-heal future microcracks also prevents any water-related deterioration from occurring over the service life of the concrete.
“The project managers in Charlestown collaborated closely with both the designers and the general contractor to speed up the timeline for completion while controlling costs,” adds Christopher Chen. “Specifying PENETRON ADMIX SB, which is easily added to the mix in soluble bags during the batching phase, as an integral concrete waterproofing solution helped save time and effort, helping to keep the construction on schedule.”
