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Huge West Mifflin Water Tank Renovated

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Tucked behind a quiet neighborhood in West Mifflin is a structure which was the largest water tank east of the Mississippi when it was built, in 1953.

While that's no longer the case, the $1.3 million renovation and repainting by Pennsylvania American Water Company was still a huge project.

Painted blue on the outside, the white walls and ceiling inside are a different world. Project manager Ralph Wawrzyniakowski says the tank is 116 feet wide.

"So if you imagine a third the length of a football field," he adds. "And there's a height of 95 feet."

That's enough volume to fill 57 million pint glasses. The ceiling has the appearance of a solid white cathedral tower. The project manager says water will never touch it.

SEE INSIDE:

"The system above us is actually a truss system, that supports and stabilizes the roof. The water goes up to the top of the walls of the tank, then there's an overflow device above the walls. If the water were to go over that device, it drains out of the tank."

Production manager Jasun Stanton describes how water arrives at this tank, and others in the area.

"Our water is taken from the Monongahela River, at Beck's Run Road and Carson Street, pumped up to a filtration plant where it's processed, and then to our distribution system, where it ends up here."

Soon the tank will be disinfected and the tank will be refilled, until the next renovation years down the road.

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