By Matt Kelly

Water agreement another sign of partnership between town and city

Aug 4, 2016 | 6:00 AM

Though the fruits of the labour haven’t yet been seen, hard work and a history of cooperation have gone into connecting the water supplies of North Battleford and Battleford.

At a special meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 2, city council approved the water pipe connecting the town’s water treatment plant to the city’s river water treatment plant and approved purchasing the town’s extra water.

Battleford only uses ground water and the water system wasn’t directly affected by the oil so councillor Ames Leslie said it was a chance to be a good neighbour.

“We have the opportunity. We have the treatment system which is fairly state of the art and we have the opportunity to help out the city of North Battleford at this time,” he said.

Leslie said the town’s ability to have the extra water available to sell came from the fact Battleford’s water treatment plant was built for excess water with population growth in mind.

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“Our water facility was upgraded, I think it’s almost four or five years ago now when it came online (2012), which at the time was built with hindsight,” he explained. “So we built bigger than what we needed to be just with future growth aspirations in mind so we wouldn’t have the rebuild in five, ten years.”

Even though the drinking and everyday water supply of Battleford residents wasn’t affected, Leslie said the effects were seen across the river.

“There are a lot of businesses over in North Battleford that a lot of residents either work at or use that were affected by this unfortunate event and a lot of those business had to shut down. I think as a good neighbour, if we can help keep those businesses going, it only helps our residents in the long run as well,” Leslie said.

Leslie added another partnership between the fire departments of Battleford and North Battleford sprung up with the town’s department supplying the city’s department with water for the trucks to help reduce the water usage in the case of a fire.

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