By Matt Kelly

City enters agreement to use town’s water as a temporary fix

Jul 29, 2016 | 7:24 PM

The agreement for the City of North Battleford to purchase water from the Town of Battleford is now official as of Friday, July 29, though it will take nearly a week for the effects to be seen.

Susanne Abe, the city’s communications coordinator, said crews are on site on the town side of the river and on the city side, building a water line connecting the city and the town.

“It will be a six-inch pipe that will go from the town of Battleford across Finlayson Island to the city of North Battleford. So from the water treatment plant there in the town to our F.E. Holliday Treatment Plant,” Abe explained.

The construction of the temporary line is expected to take seven days and will provide approximately 20 per cent of the capacity of the F.E. Holliday Water Treatment Plant.

Abe said the closed car washers might be able to open up again once the city begins to get water from the town. The city’s laundromats were able to reopen on Friday, July 29.

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The water the city is purchasing is excess water from the town, which has already been treated.

“We’re buying it from them (Battleford) because it’s treated water and we can feed it into our system. We might have to chlorinate it again, but we don’t really have to treat it,” she said.

However, Abe said the city is still looking into further supply options because the water line from the town doesn’t provide a solution for the colder months.

“We really want to play it safe and want to look into more long term options because we’re into August already and we all know winter is coming. We just want to be on the safe side,” she said.

Abe added the city doesn’t yet know when the river will be able to be used again in the treatment plant.

On July 21 a pipeline burst east of Lloydminister, leaking at least 200,000 litres of oil into the North Saskatchewan River. 

Matt Kelly is battlefordsNOW’s town municipal affairs and community reporter. He can be reached at mkelly@jpbg.ca.