Marion County unveils $21M-a-year utilities capital plan; Oak Run expansion and waterline extensions prioritized

Marion County utilities staff presented a five‑year capital improvement plan (CIP) at a Board of County Commissioners workshop, highlighting an expansion of the Oak Run facility (referred to in the plan as the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant), water main extensions that added service to roughly 1,300 residents this year, and a suite of other programs aimed at system reliability and regulatory compliance.

Tony Cunningham, Marion County utilities director, told commissioners the CIP is a “living document” meant to prioritize reliability, regulatory obligations and planned growth while balancing costs. “One of the drivers for our capital improvement plan is as our plants start to meet capacity, we need to build those additions to those plants,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said the county is planning to expand the Oak Run/Southwest plant as part of a multi‑year program that would grow the plant’s capacity from about 1.6 million gallons per day (MGD) to 3.5 MGD. He said near‑term actions include noise and odor mitigations, screening around the plant and dewatering areas, and design work for the longer‑term expansion. “We’ve put a tremendous amount of focus in that area and identified things that we could do immediately and then things that will guide the design process as we do the expansion of the plant,” Cunningham said.

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