Major upgrades for water operation on Mesa
 Heavy equipment (hosed water keeping the dust down) breaks up the concrete in a space that once was used in the exterior process at the Mesa Water Treatment Plant. The space is being redeveloped for a pre-treatment facility, according to Colorado Springs Utilites. Westside Pioneer photo
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Located just west of Coronado High School, the Colorado Springs Utilities facility is at the northeast corner of Fillmore Street and Mesa Road.
The project is scheduled to continue into late 2020. Already accomplished has been demolition of the basins and other structures located near the center of the campus, allowing construction of the new facilities to begin.
The project scope is replacing or updating equipment from when the plant was commissioned in 1942 and expanded in the 1960s, elaborated Natalie Eckhart of Utilities.
The website defines the scope of new work as “reconfiguration of the solids drying beds and construction of a new main pretreatment building, two small auxiliary buildings and a new raw water vault.”
Water is piped to the plant from different locations. One of these is Pikes Peak - the diversion is from Fountain Creek at 33rd Street - while others are on the opposite side of the Continental Divide where the city owns water rights. The facility treats the raw water and tests it for purity before releasing it into the city water system. Much of Colorado Springs is served from this plant.
 Control equipment from the 1940s Mesa Water Treatment Plant has been preserved. Courtesy of Colorado Springs Utilities
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In a related effort, Utilities is putting a new cellular tower atop the plant's water tower, in collaboration with service providers AT&T and T-Mobile. The structure is “known as a monopine for its resemblance to a pine tree [and will] replace outdated cell units on the water tower,” the press release states.
The combined height of the monopine and the 72-foot tower will be 106 feet, according to Eckhart .
She said the only public comments received about the monopine were “from neighbors happy about the prospect of improved cellular service in the area.”
Westside Pioneer article