The Sandwich City Council is buying 1.4 acres next to its wastewater treatment plant for possible expansion of the plant in the future.

At its Dec. 18 meeting, City Council members voted unanimously to buy the land at 1050 E. Church St. for $106,000 plus closing costs. The city hopes to close on the property in January.

“It just prepares us in case we need some additional expansion in the future and we have available land,” Sandwich Mayor Todd Latham said after the meeting. “Since it’s adjacent to us, it’s to our benefit to purchase it at this time.”

Latham also said the land provides a better ingress and egress for the water treatment plant, located at 1120 E. Church St. The city received a $13.9 million state loan that is being used for improvements to its wastewater treatment plant.

The upgrades to the plant will improve its ability to remove nutrients, including phosphorus, and improve water quality in Harvey Creek and waters downstream. The project includes a phosphorus-removing chemical feed system, filters, new aerobic biosolids sludge digesters and rehabilitation of the existing digesters.

The city is facing a mandate from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to reduce phosphorous discharge from the plant into Harvey Creek to 1.0 milligrams per liter. It must comply with the mandated discharge levels by Dec. 1, 2024, which was extended last year by the IEPA from March 2023.

Sandwich will be required to reduce phosphorous discharge levels to 0.5 milligrams per liter by 2030. The plant was built in 2000 and can treat up to 1.5 million gallons of wastewater a day.

The city received the low-interest loan through the IEPA’s public water supply loan program. The program is funded by state and federal sources.

The 20-year loan has a 1.04% fixed interest rate. The project qualified for an environmental discount to its interest rate for providing nutrient removal.

“The Illinois EPA’s robust state revolving fund allows us to provide communities with the essential funding needed to upgrade, repair or replace aging water infrastructure,” IEPA Director John Kim said in a statement. “This funding represents clean drinking water for Illinois residents, technology to reduce environmental impacts from stormwater and wastewater, and the creation of good-paying local jobs.”