CARROT RIVER — The new Carrot River water treatment plant construction is on schedule with its completion expected for March 2021.
“Council was very concerned, it took us a long time to get to this point, but now we’re at this point it’s going very well,” said Kevin Trew, Carrot River’s administrator. “We have a general contractor in place, that contractor is doing a great job as per schedule. It looks very promising.”
The construction hasn’t been without problems, with the contractors finding the ground site filled with tar that needed to be removed at an additional cost of $10,000.
Trew said council had planned for there to be unexpected issues to arise during its construction, allotting an additional $200,000 as a contingency fund. This is equal to 20 per cent of the total project’s funds.
The project’s tenders are currently 10 per cent under budget, with contingency funds in place.
“Right now it’s looking very promising that it should come under budget.”
Trew said that while the water supply to the town is safe and healthy, the new treatment plan is necessary to continue exceeding the present safety guidelines.
“It’s not free of contaminants, and while those contaminants are under the safe guidelines of safe drinking water, it may not be forever. The removal of contaminants is the biggest part of this,” he said.
“All the way back in history, a big part of a community is their water supply.”
The new water treatment plant includes reverse osmosis and a life expectancy of 40 years.
