The original Water Plant for the City of Elyria was built in 1879 and was run by a private company. The original plant was located in Elyria on Mussey Ave. The plant got its water from the West Branch of the Black River and was pumped directly to the distribution system.

The forefathers of Elyria realized that this source was not suitable or safe for domestic use, therefore in 1898, the interests in the private company were bought by the City of Elyria. In 1903, land was purchased on Lake Erie in Lorain and a new supply plant was built. Water was pumped for Lake Erie to the City of Elyria’s distribution system.

Water meters were installed in 1909-1910. In 1916 it became evident that a new modern plant needed to be built that would provide water for the future.

Bonds were issued and approved by the voters and were dated 7-1-1919. the city entered into a contract with Morris, Knowles Inc. to draw up the plans and supervise the construction and improvements of the plant. An eight million gallon a day plant was built to supply the City of Elyria’s demands until 1930. The first filters were built along with the supply plant.

In May of 1921, the coagulation basin was put intom service, new low service pumps( pumping water from the Lake into the plant) were put into service in October of 1922, new high Service pumps that pumped water from the plant to the city of Elyria’s Distribution system were put into operation in November of 1922.

Land was purchased for the new Lake plant in 1903 for $407/arce, 6.4 acres were purchased.

In 1921, additional land was purchased, 4.878 acres for $3300 per acre. Giving the City a parcel 633ft by 777ft long, approximately 11 acres.

Today’s water plant is still located at the original Lake location in Lorain. The Elyria Water Pumping Plant is a conventional surface water plant, rated by the EPA at 22 million gallons a day (22MGD). It is located on 12.67 acres of land and consists of 8 structures.
The plant has two intakes, a 24” cast iron intake and a 42” intake. Both are located on the lake bottom.

Water is brought into the plant by the low service pumps and pumped into the mixing chambers. In the mixing chambers, Aluminum sulfate (a coagulant) is added, along with lime (for pH adjustment), Powdered Activated Carbon, (seasonally for taste and odor control) and Fluoride for dental protection.

The Chemicals are than mixed and the water flows by gravity to the Flocculators where the water is gently mixed to promote formation of floc. The water flows by gravity to the sedimentation basins where the floc is settled out. The settled floc is call sludge and accumulates at the bottom of the settling basins. The sludge is drawn off the basins daily and trucked to the Wastewater plant.

The water than flow to carbon filters where it is filtered and goes to the clearwells to be pumped to the distribution system.