Platte City may start selling water to Tracyby Dave Kinnamon Landmark assistant editorCity of Tracy mayor Brenda Ferguson recently received notification from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources that Tracy has been preliminarily qualified to receive a $75,000 grant from the state.
The grant money will be used to fund a water conversion project in Tracy that will enable about 100 Tracy households to switch from rural water to Platte City water, Ferguson told The Landmark on Tuesday evening.
Mayor Ferguson submitted the application packet on behalf of Tracy because the water conversion would shorten the distance from which Tracy residents receive their drinkable water and also save the households money on their water bills over time, she said.
“I have more paperwork that I must submit to DNR, but as long as the ‘i’s get dotted and the ‘t’s get crossed, we could get the grant money from DNR,” Ferguson said.
The grant money is a competitive process in which Tracy is competing with many other municipalities, but DNR did notify mayor Ferguson this week that the city of Tracy has been placed on DNR’s qualified list.
Part of the DNR grant money would be used to connect a raw water line in Tracy to the City of Platte City main water line.
Platte City administrator Keith Moody told the board of aldermen, at their bi-weekly meeting on Tuesday evening at city hall, that the opportunity to sell drinkable water to Tracy residents has been an item of discussion going back several years.
“We’re good neighbors. We provide Tracy with wastewater treatment service. The (proposed water hook-up) is a reasonable request,” Moody said.
Platte City public works employees plan to test Tracy’s raw water line, which lies along the north side of Highway 92 and extends from First St. in Platte City to roughly Rusty’s Auto Sales in Tracy, Moody explained.
The raw water line has not been used since 1989, Moody said.
The raw water line was built when Platte City used water wells filled with water from the Platte River.
When Platte City signed a bulk water purchase agreement with Kansas City, Mo., the agreement mandated that Platte City shut the Platte River water wells and line down.
Platte City workers will test the raw water line at that time. Employees will pressure test the raw water line and also test its sanitary condition, Moody said. Platte City would charge Tracy residents for use of Platte City water. Tracy residents would save some money on their water bills, versus what they pay the Rural Water District No. 9, mayor Ferguson noted.
Platte City would make a modest profit from providing drinkable water service to Tracy residents, Moody said.