EDITORIAL: Lake Station to get a taste of better water

Both Lake Station mayoral candidates last fall promised to do something about the city's water quality. It is good to see Mayor Keith Soderquist following up on this so quickly after the election.

Cynthia Robbins, his opponent, told frightening stories about how bad the water was in the parts of town served the municipal water utility. Water with that much sediment is not good for plumbing or taste, regardless of whether it meets the accepted federal or state water quality standards. Factor in the odor issue, and this project is an easy choice.

Under Soderquist's leadership, the City Council gave its approval last month for American Structurepoint Inc. of South Bend to apply for state funding to help pay for the improvements. That grant would allow the city to update a water system that dates back to the early 1950s.

Top priorities include building a new treatment plant, drilling five new wells, improving water mains, erecting a new water tower and installing a real-time system that can be operated remotely. All of this would cost an estimated $7.2 million.

If the grant doesn't come through, the city simply would accomplish less, in order to keep the rate increase to $5 a month on the average water customer's bill.

That's not much to pay for the vast improvement to the city's water quality this project would deliver.

Lake Station's water project is an important quality-of-life improvement for the residents. The face that Robbins and Soderquist both favored addressing the city's water problems is a sign of the need to do this work.

For Soderquist to move on this so quickly after his election to fulfill this campaign is as refreshing as a tall glass of water — the kind of water that will be delivered after the improvements are done.