By Greg Higgins

City stops dredging in case of ground contamination

Aug 16, 2016 | 1:00 PM

Contamination of the river may be more than surface deep as questions arise about sand blocking a water intake and what removing it might unearth into the water.

Prior to the oil leak, North Battleford dredged sand around the F.E. Holiday Water Plants water intake in an effort to unclog it. Operations ceased due to concerns about the oil contaminating the sand and ground.

Jim Puffalt, city manager, said if the sand and ground are contaminated, the federal government may require it to be completely removed from the river. The original plan was to just move the sand to another spot downstream.

Puffalt said the city is not willing to take that risk especially if they don’t have to.

“Rather than try to take a chance with any of that stuff we just said ‘we’re OK right now.’ The new General Electric filtration system will allow us to take water out of the river without the sand affecting us,” Puffalt said.

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It could end up costing double if the city is forced to remove the sand — something Puffalt said North Battleford did not budget for. If the sand has to be completely removed, Puffalt said the cost would be charged to Husky.

General Electric and the Water Security Agency are looking for an area to put a carbon activated filtration system which would filter any oil before going into the surface water plant. The system is scheduled to be installed for mid-September.

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