By Greg Higgins

Additional testing required at water treatment plant

Dec 14, 2016 | 1:56 PM

In the aftermath of the Husky oil spill in July, the Water Security Agency is requiring all communities drawing water from the North Saskatchewan River to check for levels of hydro carbons and other potentially dangerous chemicals.

The testing will be done at North Battleford’s F.E. Holiday plant. Tests haven’t been required yet because the plant isn’t running due to the installation of a new filtration system. Once the system is operational, tests will begin.

North Battleford director of operations, Stewart Schafer, said at Monday night’s council meeting, Prince Albert and Melfort have already started testing.

“Once we start taking water from the river they [Water Security Agency] want us to conduct a few tests during the report coming in,” Schafer said. “Also during the winter freeze up they want us to test once a month that the hydro carbons aren’t there. In the spring during the break up they have additional testing they want us to do.”

Councillor Kelli Hawtin asked if there was a cost increase and if it would be covered by husky, to which the director of finance, David Gillan, did not have a clear answer for. He said the city is in discussions with Husky about covering the costs because it was a question of “should the city be responsible for this?”

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Gillan didn’t specify how much testing would cost, only “is it significant? Not really.”

Some of the chemicals being tested for are benzene to which only up to 0.005 milligrams per litre is acceptable.

The new filtration system at the surface water plant is expected to be operational by Christmas.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.