Elmira Water Filtration Plant

The Elmira Water Filtration Plant is a drinking water treatment facility in Elmira, New York and a component of the Elmira Water Board's water supply system. The original filtration plant, which was located on Reservoir Street and completed in 1897 following an outbreak of typhoid fever, was one of the oldest functioning rapid sand filtration plants in the United States and had been designated as an American Water Landmark and a historic civil engineering landmark. It filtered surface water obtained from the Chemung River and a reservoir on Hoffman Creek—and also later ground water pumped from wells—for distribution into the Elmira Water Board's system of water mains. A new filtration plant located across Hoffman Creek opened in 1996 as a replacement for the old filter plant, which was subsequently demolished in 2009.