PERRY, Ga. — People living and working in Perry may see discolored water or low water pressure this week as the city starts up their new water plant.
Because Perry is growing so fast, Mayor Randall Walker says the city started planning this $11.5 million plant off Tucker Road five years ago.
He says in just the last 10 years, the city's population has jumped from 9,000 to over 20,000.
We’re growing very very rapidly every month with the new home construction that’s going in on the east side of Perry. We're continuing to see growth each and every month of new homes being built over there which will create a demand for this water," says Walker.
He says it's time for an upgrade, but this week, people living along the Perry Parkway could see some disruptions as they get it started.
Walker says they've been talking about this new plant for five years and started construction two years ago.
Starting Monday night, they'll get the water flowing, but that means people living and working along the Perry Parkway could see low water pressure or discolored water for the next few days.
"Our goal is to completely flush the line, make sure there is no debris in the line before we stop the flushing, so that should eliminate most of the problems," Walker says.
During this process, it's important to remember a few things.
Make sure you have bottled water handy, hold off on washing your clothes if you have dirty water, remove and clean faucet screens, and if you do see sediment or brown water, start flushing your home water system until the water turns clear.
It's also a good idea to shut off unfiltered icemakers until after October 2nd.
The city currently has two other water plants.
The smaller one was built in the 1930s and it will be shut down.
The other will continue to pump three million gallons a day, while this new plant off Tucker Road will produce two million.
"This is going to give us a long term, dependable water supply that is going to be multigenerational," says Walker.
The city says crews will finish the process on October 2nd and will be working mostly overnight.