(BENTON, IL) — The city of Benton broke ground on a cold Thursday morning on its new wastewater treatment plant across from the city’s current plant on Petroff Road. This new facility will cost $14 million and will replace the existing facility that was built in 1939. Public Property Commissioner Ronnie Baumgarte says the money for the project was received through a loan from the EPA. The new facility, Baumgarte says, will be state of the art and should last for many years to come. HMG Engineering and River City Construction will be in charge of the project that is expected to take 400 days to complete. The new facility should be up and running sometime in 2018.