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Water line between the Battlefords still on schedule

Aug 5, 2016 | 2:00 PM

The water line connecting North Battleford and Battleford is still on schedule to be operational by the end of the weekend.

Over the course of Thursday, Aug. 4 and Friday, Aug. 5, the water line between the city and the town was successfully disinfected.

It was stated earlier in the week, the line could be operational by Sunday, Aug. 7 or Monday, Aug. 8. Patrick Boyle, a spokesperson with the Water Security Agency, said on Friday, Aug. 5 it is still the case.

“It’s a matter of getting those samples in to the lab and getting them back and then going through that process,” he said. “I would say with confidence probably over the weekend hopefully before Monday, but in the next two to three days we should have that line feeding into the city of North Battleford.”

One third of the treated river water normally supplied by the F.E. Holliday Water is expected to be replaced by the water line.

Boyle said the process of disinfecting the water line went smoothly and water testing will have to be completed to check agency standards.

“They’re planning on taking some of those bacteriological samples today (Friday) and going through that process to meet regulations with the Water Security Agency and our requirements. So that’s proceeding fairly well,” Boyle said.

In the meantime, Boyle said North Battleford’s current water supplies do not present a concern.

“Their (North Battleford’s) reservoirs are looking good around that 80 to 100 per cent mark. The ground water plant is also doing fairly well itself and things are progressing there,” he said.

Despite the anticipated increase in water, residents of North Battleford are still under the same restrictions for outside watering until further notice. Carwashes will also remain closed until further notice.

In a release issued on Aug. 4, the City of North Battleford said the additional water will primarily be used to supplement the water capacity needed to fight potential fires.

Along with the water coming through the line from Battleford, the city has a 12-month plan in place which includes creating four additional wells and a filtration system to pre-treat river water because the water line won’t be used during the winter months.

Dr. Kevin McCullum with the Ministry of Environment said the manual work of cleaning up the oil on the shoreline with rakes and shovels continues and good progress is being made.

McCullum also corrected the amount of animals which had died in the spill. On Thursday it was reported 71 animals died due to the spill, but McCallum said the number is 69 and the error was due to an inadvertent double count.

Thirty-three fish, 26 birds and 10 mammals have died due to the oil spill.

The rupture of a Husky Energy pipeline two weeks ago caused the leak of as much as 250,000 litres of blended crude oil into the North Saskatchewan River. Cleanup efforts have recovered approximately 139,200 litres.

 

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