By BILL SHEA

Messenger staff writer

Everyday, thousands of Fort Dodge residents reach for faucets in kitchens and bathrooms, knowing that pure water will soon be flowing.

Most of them probably never think about how that water got to them.

John Horrell prefers it that way.

He is the superintendent of the John W. Pray Water Facility in Fort Dodge, and he likes providing a service that people need, but never think about.

''If no one hears about us, we're doing a pretty good job,'' he said.

Horrell presides over a plant that can churn out 10 million gallons of clean water each day. It's a job he's held since December 1993.

Water pumped from all the city's wells flows to the plant at 600 Phiney Park Drive, where it passes through filters and gets a dose of chlorine to kill any bacteria. The newly treated water then is pumped out through the water mains, into the city's four water towers and eventually into homes and businesses.

The water that comes from the wells is called raw water, but it's actually very clean because layers of rock and soil protect it from pollution, according to Horrell. Therefore, he and his six-member staff don't have to do a lot to treat the water. Most of their work focuses on removing iron from the water.

It's highly automated work. Thanks to a computer system installed in 2006, the plant's crew no longer spends a lot of time operating machinery to keep the water flowing. They can, however, override the system at any time and run the plant the old-fashioned way.

Horrell said the computer system controls the plant processes. The staff, he said, monitors the system and maintains the equipment. There are also records to keep and wells to be checked. One employee works full time in a lab, continually testing the water.

If something goes wrong, one of 260 alarms in the water plant system activate and automatically call Horrell's cell phone. That can happen at any hour of the day, so Horrell is occasionally called back to work long after his regular day has ended.

While he's not fond of 3 a.m. trouble alarms at the plant, Horrell finds little to complain about.

''I can't really say I've ever had the the feeling that I don't want to go to work,'' he said. ''I enjoy doing this. It's fun to do.''

Although he took over the water plant 16 years ago, Horrell started working for the city's Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department as a part-timer in 1968 while a teenager.

He graduated from St. Edmond High School, then earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Loras College in Dubuque.

After graduating, Horrell wanted to work in a laboratory. But he found that there were few lab jobs available for someone who didn't have a graduate degree. So he went back to work for the city on a full-time basis in 1975.

In that year, he was hired by the city's Riverfront Improvement Commission to be the caretaker of Loomis Park, which stretches along the east bank of the Des Moines River between North Seventh Street and Hawkeye Avenue. That commission was later dissolved and the park was taken over by the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department.

In 1978, Horrell transferred to that department and went to work at the Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex.

Five years later, a lab job finally opened for him - at the water plant. He worked in the plant's lab from 1983 to 1993, when he was promoted to superintendent.

Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net