Paris council hears update on wastewater plant phases 1 and 2; startup, commissioning set to begin

Justin Ratcliffe, the project manager for Garver, gave the Paris City Council an on-site construction update Sept. 22 on phases 1 and 2 of the city’s wastewater treatment plant improvements.

Ratcliffe said startup and commissioning meetings for phase 1 will begin the week following the presentation, and he reiterated the project’s current estimated substantial- and final-completion windows: substantial completion in January 2026 and final completion in April 2026. "I'm very happy to announce that we will have start up and commissioning meetings that will start next week. So that's the last lap of this race," Ratcliffe said.

The update matters because the work is intended to increase treatment capacity and plant reliability, reduce ongoing operations costs and ensure the plant continues to meet federal discharge standards. "This will have a lower electrical use than the existing facility," Ratcliffe said, adding that the upgrade also improves the system’s resiliency and reduces operations-and-maintenance demands. He said the plant is designed to meet or exceed requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

Ratcliffe walked the council through the construction phasing and showed…