The City of Castlegar announced at a council meeting on Feb. 6 that it has successfully secured a grant from the General Strategic Priorities Fund for the amount of $760,000 towards the upgrade of the existing Water Treatment Centre including the installation of UV treatment.
Having UV reactors at the Water Treatment Centre will now allow the City to meet Interior Health's requirements for a dual barrier treatment process (chlorination and UV).
"The city is very pleased to receive this grant," said John Malcolm, City of Castlegar chief administration officer. "It reflects the city's movement forward on water conservation, through the metering program for example. It'll also help us with increasing health regulations in the treatment of water."
The UV Treatment Upgrade project had been previously submitted for grant opportunities in 2007 and 2008, but was unsuccessful both times.
"When we applied three years ago for some grant for our water system it was refused," said Malcolm. "In follow up, in determining how we could make our bids better it was clearly communicated to us that we needed to do something to reduce our very high water use in the city."
By completing a Total Water Master Plan, implementing a Universal Metering Program and participating in the Water Smart initiative, the city's commitment to long term planning and effective stewardship of our water source has been recognized by grant authorities and rewarded, said the press release from the city.
In the 2011 submission, the city pledged one third of the unfunded portion of the total project costs, which are estimated at $1.2 million. The project design is substantially complete and will be ready to go to tender by late January.
"We'll have it constructed through this coming year," said Malcolm. "We're adding basic upgrades within the existing plan. It's essentially tearing out all the pumps and filtration systems. It's a significant piece of work."