The Wasielewski Water Treatment plant is going to be fully operational by mid-November.
On Sunday, Erie Water Works held ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the end of a seven-year, $42 million dollar project.

"The water quality here is going to be the finest in the world," said Dick Wasielewski, a former CEO and namesake of the plant.

"This plant will provide the Erie region with the best water quality possible from a municipal water system," said Paul Vojtek, CEO of  Erie Water Works. "We felt the additional investment was well worth it, as this plant will now meet and exceed regulations for decades to come," he said.

The newly renovated plant now uses a membrane filtration system, which is the latest in water treatment technology.

Water is pushed between fibers that are tightly packed in a tube, filters the water. The space between the strands of fiber is called the pore size.

"The pore size is .04 microns, which is four-millionths of an inch," said Dave Motherwell, a production quality manager at Erie Water Works. "That's 200 times smaller than the virus we are trying to filter out," he said.

While the new system does use more energy, it saves cost by eliminating the need for some chemicals used in the old charcoal and sand filtering process.

The plant can clean and pump 45 million gallons of water per day, though it currently only needs to clean 24 million gallons daily to meet demand. The plant currently serves about 190 thousand people.

"We have the best of both worlds - architecture from the 30's and water quality that's 2013," Wasielewski said.