During Monday’s meeting of the Waterloo City Council, Mayor Stan Darter announced that the city’s water plant that went online just less than a year ago had won an award.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois has selected the City of Waterloo for its 2026 Engineering Excellence Award.

The city will formally be presented with this award during a black tie gala Feb. 18 near Chicago. 

The city’s new state-of-the-art water treatment facility in Valmeyer, which went online in late December 2024, features a trio of wells off Bluff Road that drill into the Mississippi Aquifer, working one at a time throughout the day.

Waterloo’s new plant ended a contract with Illinois American Water that would have resulted in increased rates, city officials have said.

Certop Inc. – a contract water operating company based in Clinton County – operates, maintains and manages this $30-plus million plant.

The facility was designed by Artesian of Pioneer Water Treatment Systems, with the plant being laid out by HMG Engineers.

Waterloo’s water treatment facility is one of the first pellet softening installations in Illinois, per the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. 

“This technology is used in many other states and in Europe, but just has not been used much in Illinois yet,” John Wieter of HMG Engineers explained last year.