Come celebrate National Public Works Week and the 20th anniversary of the Iowa City Water Treatment Plant with an open house on Saturday, May 20, 2023!

The Public Works Open House will take place from 1-3 p.m. at the Water Treatment Plant, 80 Stephen Atkins Drive. The all-ages event will feature:

City equipment
Public works exhibits
Guided tours
Remarks from local officials
More family fun

The Iowa City Water Treatment Plant opened in February 2003. The $49 million project took four years to complete, with groundbreaking for the new water wells taking place in 1999 and for the facility in 2000. The facility replaced the former treatment plant on Madison Street, which had been in service since 1882!

Today, the water treatment plant produces 6 million gallons of drinking water daily or about 2 billion gallons of purified water annually. Thirty people staff the facility, tanks, wells, 29,000 water meters, 280 miles of a public water main, and thousands of hydrants and valves.

The Iowa City community pays less than 1 cent per gallon for this intensely regulated, 24/7 service.

National Public Works Week is an annual recognition of the important impact public works have on the daily lives of people across the country. This year’s National Public Works Week is May 21-27. The theme is “Connecting the World.”