Water is necessary.

Necessary to wash, brush and more importantly, keep alive. However, bad-tasting water can make it tough to stay hydrated.

It is not uncommon to hear people complain about the water in Charleston, but by this time next year, those complaints may be silenced.

A new waste water treatment plant scheduled to be ready and filtering out the bad tastes and odor of Charleston water next fall is one of the first major projects for Alan Probst, the recently hired city manager.

“We should have the best-tasting water in Illinois by this time next year,” he said.

Though Charleston passed the annual test of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency standards for water, the new plant will eliminate bad taste and odor not associated with undrinkable water, but with the old plant.

The current water treatment plant is located at on W. Madison Ave., and the new one will not be relocated.

Currently, the new plant is in design stages, Probst said, and is set to be filling clean glasses of water next fall.