The city of Cayce broke ground Friday on the new City of Cayce Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility on Old State Road.
The plant is expected to bring the community over 100 jobs. The new facility will be funded by the City of Cayce, the Town of Lexington, and the Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission.
American Engineering Consultants President and site engineer Bill Bingham said he had been waiting for this moment for over 15 years.
''I just get really excited over seeing something that I conceived and then finally get to see it being built," said Bingham.
Work on the 25,000,000 gallon per day facility is expected to be complete in 2012. It will replace the old wastewater plant built in the early 1970s.
"It served the city of Cayce faithfully for that 38 years, but it's time to lay it to rest," said Bingham.
The engineer said replacing the old plant before it gets too old will help prevent wastewater accidents that have plagued Columbia for the past several months.
Bingham also promises improved water quality and the latest water purifying technologies.
''This plant is monumental it will be the second largest plant in the Midlands area," said Bingham.
To get an idea of just how large the new plant will be officials say if the concrete used for the building was a sidewalk, it would stretch from here to Charleston.
''The plant that will be created here will help to create economic development in our county for a long time to come," said Cayce Mayor Elise Partin.
Partin says one of those economic benefits is job growth as the contracting company plans to hire 100 people from the community to help complete the project.
"In addition to that, they will be using suppliers from our area, so it will be an important economic boost for our region,” said Partin.
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