CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — There's another threat of storms and heavy rain this week.
Officials at Missouri American Water said they're looking at the radar to respond accordingly.
The company's job is to provide clean water to about 1.5 million people in the state.
The drinking water for the company’s customers in St. Louis County and St. Charles County comes from the Missouri River and Meramec River.
At its Chesterfield "Central Plant" location, it serves 60% of St. Louis County.
On Tuesday morning, 5 On Your Side visited the facility's key spots.
Overlooking the Missouri River, Director of Water Quality and Environmental Compliance, Tim Ganz, gave insight about its primary intake structure off of mile marker 36.
The location is strategic and it's placed on a bend.
"It's an ideal place because it’s on the channel side of the river, there is depth of water and consistent water," Ganz said. "We're pumping water out of the wet well, out of those pumps on top of the structure, to our treatment basins about half a mile away."
At its pre-sedimentation basin, it removes a big bulk of the solids from the river to be as clear as possible, making disinfection effective.
From there, the water goes through multiple filters.
Senior Production Manager, Taylor Flynn-Elhoffer, said the process can take eight hours to 18 hours depending on the day.
Every single day, the 300-acre plant processes about 217 million gallons of water.
In the summer, Flynn-Elhoffer said more water gets used because of irrigation systems and pools.
To make sure everything runs smoothly, crews check in daily.
"We're sampling our raw water multiple times a day, so we're looking at Ph, turbidity and we see where we need to be with our chemicals for our treatment," Ganz said.
The company is at the mercy of Mother Nature.
The formula for clean water could change depending on the weather.
"You have to be aware of what's coming down river with the weather," Ganz added.
With heavy rains in the distance, crews are cautious.
They aren't checking in more often, but they're aware of potential changes coming.
"You always want to watch big rain storms the characteristics coming in from the river because we have to deal with what's given to us," Flynn-Elhoffer said. "We also have continuous monitors, we’re playing a predictive game and what the next 12 hours will look like and adjust that."
Ganz said the biggest change when it comes to a flooding event is the turbidity in the river, which means the clarity of it.
"It will increase and we would have to address the chemicals to account for that," Ganz said.
Missouri American Water strives to give customers a clean product, no matter what the weather brings.
"We have monitors for water quality throughout the process, just being engaged on top of that and doing those adjustments, being ahead of the curve," Ganz said.
Flynn-Elhoffer said there are several generators on site for backup, just in case.