13.8 Million for Water Treatment Plant

By Pete McIntyre -- Kiss FM News -- October 5, 2005

A Greater Vernon water project has tapped into federal and provincial funding.

Okanagan Shuswap M-P Colin Mayes announced a grant today for the Duteau Creek treatment facility.

The M-P told a news conference at the Mission Hill treatment facility, "Greater Vernon Services will receive 10.47 million dollars from the federal gas tax fund to construct a new water treatment building and more than 3.3 million dollars from the Municipal Rural Infrastructure fund to construct a water reservoir at Duteau Creek."

It adds up to 13.8 million dollars of the project's estimated 24 million dollar cost.

Greater Vernon Services chairman Gary Corner says the grant will help reduce the costs to local taxpayers.

"The plan that we had was built on no (senior government) funding what-so-ever, so obviously this is going to take some of the pressure off future water increases and certainly make a difference tax-wise to the citizens."

Greater Vernon Water manager Al Cotsworth says the new facility will reduce the need for boil water advisories and get rid of most of the discolouration problems.

"That's where we see a lot of our complaints is the colour in the water, and this will significantly reduce the colour. We're anticipating it to be below the Canadian water guideline for colour."

The new plant, which will be located on Whitevale Road in the Lavington area, should be ready for operation by April 2009.

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