By BRANDON WORF

bworf@dailynews.net

As of Sunday afternoon, the city of Russell officially is on the forefront of water cleaning technology.

Approximately 80 people showed up for the dedication and open house of the city's new electro-dialysis reversal water treatment plant. Russell city manager Ralph Wise was pleased with the results.

"Things went fantastic. It was a great day for the city of Russell," Wise said. "I was impressed with the turnout and how interested folks were about the new technology."

The $5.8 million plant is an electro-dialysis reversal treatment facility and uses a filtration process that removes contaminants from the water through an electric charge. The electric current is then periodically reversed in order to remove the contaminants from the membrane filters.

"It's the first of its kind in the state," Wise said of the new tech. "We've had inquiries from Dodge City and Wichita already."

The Wichita interest is the result of a presentation given by Russell Public Works Director Arlyn Unrein at the annual Kansas Municipal Utilities conference in Wichita. It was there where he explained the relatively new technology being used in Russell to other city leaders.

"I am told by Arlyn that we should expect plenty of questions and inquiries from other cities in the near and distant future," Wise said. The new plant is state of the art, but also comes at a price.

Although partially funded by a $190,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a $400,000 grant from the Community Development Block Grant program administered by the Kansas Department of Commerce, the remaining balance is being paid for through the revolving loan fund of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

"We'll have about $5.4 million that we'll have to pay back over 20 years," Wise said.

The plant went online in March and has a maximum capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day, which raises the city's maximum capacity to 2.5 million gallons of water per day. The EDR plant is supplied from a well field near Pfeifer, and the treated water is blended with water exiting the existing treatment plant before being stored and distributed.