Facilities and Facility Tours
Your Own Utilities welcomes and encourages group tours of many of its Utility facilities.
- For the C. H. Corn Hydroelectric Plant and the Sam O. Purdom Generating Station, please contact JoAnn Taylor (850-891-5901).
- For the Arvah B. Hopkins Generating Station, please contact Kim Hunter-Murphy (850-891-5806).
- For Water Utility tours including the Southeast Farm, please contact Lorin Pratt (850-891-6106).
Electric Utility Facilities and Tours
The City of Tallahassee's Electric Utility serves over 100,000 Tallahassee
households and businesses with electric power. The system covers a 221-square
mile territory and utilizes over 170 miles of transmission lines. The system's
total generating capacity of 667 megawatts from three generating stations.
C. H. Corn Power Plant
The C. H. Corn facility is a hydroelectric generating plant located
20 miles southwest of Tallahassee, on Lake Talquin. This plant is one of only
two hydroelectric plants in the state of Florida.
Arvah B. Hopkins Generating Station
The Arvah Hopkins Power Plant is located on 230 acres of land 7 miles
west of Tallahassee on Geddie Road. The area, covered with oaks
and pines, provides a haven for a variety of wildlife.
The Hopkins power plant is the site of the annual "Hopkins Open House" that takes place during Public Power Week in October. Public Power Week honors the City of Tallahassee Utilities' community ownership, which results in reliable, affordable utilities for citizens and businesses. It also recognizes the economic, social, and environmental contributions of a community-owned power system.
Sam O. Purdom Generating Station
The Purdom Generating Facility is located on the beautiful St. Marks
River in the City of St. Marks and has been in operation since 1952. Purdom
Unit 8, first envisioned in the mid 90's, began generating power in 2000.
Water Utility Facilities and Tours
Southeast Farm - An Award Winning Water Reuse Facility
Beginning in 1966, the City of Tallahassee became one of the few municipalities
to experiment with using the treated effluent water to irrigate crops. It's
worked so well that the system has been expanded several times since
then, and Tallahassee now recycles all of its effluent wastewater in this
manner. Now comprising 2163 acres, the Southeast Farm, as it is known, is
one of the largest and most advanced facilities of its type anywhere in the
world.
After the Thomas P. Smith and Lake Bradford plants treat the city's wastewater, it is then pumped through a 36 inch diameter pipe along an eight-and-a-half mile route to the Southeast Farm. A highly sophisticated computer system developed specifically for this project controls the thirteen huge center-pivot sprinkler systems and the distribution of water through them. Various crops such as canola, corn, soybeans, hay and sorghum can be grown year round on each of the thirteen spray fields for resale or put up for silage to supplement the cattle which graze on the pasture land at the farm. Crop rotation allows for various fields to be available as pasture for grazing year round.
Thomas P. Smith Water Reclamation Facility
The Thomas P. Smith facility, located on Springhill Road near the Tallahassee
Airport, can treat up to 27.5 million gallons of wastewater a day
and is capable of handling peak flows up to 55 million gallons per day.
Recently installed technology has enabled the City of Tallahassee to advance its wastewater treatment capabilities. The new Dragon Dryer® sludge drying system produces reusable "Class A" biosolids, which can be sold as a beneficial fertilizer and soil conditioner to commercial nurseries, agricultural markets and other businesses. The Dragon Dryer unit became fully operational March of 2005 at the Thomas P. Smith Wastewater Treatment Facility.
This unique, single-pass -drying system reduces the wastewater treatment plant's sludge volume by 75 percent, virtually eliminating the need for spreading biosolids on land.