NORWICH – Five years after concept designs for a new water filtration plant were presented to the city council to replace the city’s outdated water filtration facility, financial hurdles have presented new challenges in moving forward with the project.

The latest obstacle to be overcome by the city: A request from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development for the city to lower the total cost of the water filtration project to $5 million. This led to some drastic modifications to the proposed plant design, which began as an estimated $9.4 million project.

As it was, the project, which will be paid mostly by grant reimbursements from the USDA-RD, was more than the USDA would fund, explained Superintendent of Public Works Carl Ivarson. Since funding was cut to the federal organization this year, it can only reimburse the city so much, he said.

“The USDA is very interested in helping this project go forward,” he added. “We are continuing to look at reducing the expense of the project yet maintain the plant’s full capacity.”

In an effort to meet USDA-RD funding requirements, Ivarson, along with Mayor Joseph Maiurano and Finance Director Bill Roberts, met with engineers earlier this month to discuss ways of reducing the cost of the plant while still retaining the mandated 1.9 million gallons of water at the plant per day. Similar discussions were had in October, when city officials and engineers made project revisions that cut costs by nearly $3 million.