The Junction City Water Treatment Plant was placed into service in 1980. The plant is a conventional groundwater softening plant located on north Jackson Street . It has been designed to treat up to 10 million gallons of water per day and distribute it into storage as purified drinking water. The water is supplied to the plant through 10 wells drilled into the aquifer near the Republican River. The Treatment Plant is staffed 24 hours a day with Kansas Certified Water Supply System Operators under a long-term management contract with Veolia Water North America. The water is pumped from the ground as needed, softened (the removal of hardness compounds that cause scale buildup in pipelines) and stabilized to prevent excess corrosion, fluoridated to help prevent dental caries in teeth, filtered to remove solid materials, and chlorinated to destroy disease-causing organisms during treatment as well as a residual level to protect the water during storage and transmission. Plant Operators conduct various process control laboratory testing at least every two hours and as needed in response to changing conditions. Special testing requiring more sophisticated equipment is conducted through partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and other contracted laboratories to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. The water distribution system is tested for bacteriological contamination 15 times every month by the water plant staff collecting samples from customer residences. Please go to Water Sampling Program to see how you can participate in this important program. A report on the results of all water quality testing conducted throughout the year is published once each year and is available at Annual Water Quality Report    The most recent events at the Water Treatment Plant and Water System: Ash Tower was placed into service in 1996, filter media and controls were replaced in 2002, the plant has completed 14 years without a lost time accident and won the Wendell R. LaDue national safety award from the American Water Works Association in 2006.