Sharpsville council Thursday examined several options to replace or upgrade its nearly 50-year-old water treatment plant.

Council members, water plant employees and residents listened to a presentation by Bob McCarthy, vice president of sales for US Filter in Towson, Md. US Filter representatives have been analyzing Sharpsville's plant for several months, he said.

Sharpsville's plant currently meets or exceeds all Department of Environmental Protection regulations. However, council members have to plan for the future, when regulations will change.

McCarthy presented two basic options for a new plant.

The first one, which would cost between $3.5 million and $4 million, consists of a solids contact clarifier followed by membrane filtration. In this scenario, chemicals would be added to raw water to make contaminants coagulate, or stick together, making it easier for the membranes to filter them out.

The second scenario, which would cost between $5 million and $6 million, would be membrane filtration followed by ozone treatment and then carbon filtration.

Costs are based on building an entire new plant without using any present equipment, McCarthy said.

Sharpsville's plant currently uses a multi-media sand filtration system, along with a layer of anthracite, to filter out impurities, said Borough Manager Mike Wilson.

McCarthy said US Filter assessed Sharpsville's water supply, which is the Shenango River, to come up with the scenarios. He said water in the Shenango River has high turbidity, which means it's cloudy with dirt; it has a seasonal taste and odor; it contains micro-organisms such as girardia and protozoan oocysts and it contains a variety of dissolved metals.

When asked by council members, McCarthy said it could be possible to renovate the existing plant for $2 million to $2.5 million rather than building a new one and still meet upcoming DEP standards.

Council Vice President Gary "Gus" Grandy said council needs to examine all the facts before making a decision. He said if it would cost $2.5 million to renovate the plant, it might make sense to spend an extra $1 million to build a new plant.

Council members also expressed interest in visiting an operating plant similar to the scenarios McCarthy presented. McCarthy said there are about 20 US Filter plants in the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia, and the company is building a plant in Johnstown, Pa.

Wilson said council will continue to look into different options for the water plant and will examine alternatives and costs. They don't have a timetable at this point when construction or renovation would begin, nor have they determined how to pay for it, he said.

Two years ago, the Sharon accounting firm of Black, Bashor and Porsch and Killam Associates Consulting Engineers, Warrendale, Pa., presented several options to council for the water plant. Costs ranged from $1.8 million to renovate the plant to about $3 million to build a new ZENON plant. A ZENON plant uses membranes in its filtration system, similar to the type of plant US Filter presented.