The water supply line to supply water from Battleford to North Battleford is coming into use as of Tuesday.
Latest lab results from the water line came back showing no water contamination, which means the City of North Battleford can now access the treated water from the town.
The plan was for one last flushing of the standing water in the pipe, before allowing the treated Battleford water to go into F.E. Holliday and then go out to the city for use.
It’s estimated the Battleford water will replace up to a third of the water that was lost when F.E. Holliday was closed due to the oil spill. The news release from the City estimates the City’s water capacity will augmented by 30 per cent.
The City states this additional water will augment the water capacity needed to suppress fires, as well as reduce operating demand at Water Treatment Plant No.1. So, for the time being, all water restrictions for outside watering remain in effect until further notice.
The only exception, according to the news release from communications coordinator Susanne Abe, is that City water can now be used to water vegetable gardens as they are considered a food source.
The City’s update also noted work has started on drilling wells at Water Treatment Plant No. 1. Four new wells are going in, which should restore another one-third of the water capacity that had been lost due to the oil spill.
The news release states the new wells will eventually bring some relief to the water use restrictions as well. The goal is to have these up and running by the end of August, depending on the weather and unforeseen circumstances.
The third option coming in will be filtration systems for the water intake at F.E. Holliday water treatment plant. According to the City, those are currently being designed to take into account the composition of the oil that was spilled into the river.
