Dear Editor,
I was given by Michelle Allen at the Village Office the 2015 water testing results and the proposed water treatment plant work plan. The information raises a couple of concerns. I had phone conversations with the Information Resource Officer in Victoria, who put me on to Rob Fleming from Interior Health in Kamloops. Fleming was the fellow, along with Urban Systems, who was at the meeting here about the need for a plant.
His biggest concern was turbidity, which he attributes to clay banks upriver. The turbidity was at an acceptable level for most of the summer except for a few spikes, so a water advisory was left on so we, the public, wouldn’t get confused. My concern is his push for a treatment plant when the quarterly test results show that all samples were within acceptable guidelines. The only exception was coliform from raw water tested at the pump, which was above guidelines. The weekly coliform tests from all three zones are within provincial guidelines. Perhaps the coliform settled in the storage tanks.
My other concern is, along with many other folks, the borrowing up $4.1 million. Urban Systems is costing out the project at $8.5 million, with a $1.2 million contingency. The grant is $5.7 million, which leaves us on the hook for $2.8 million (one-third). After the fire truck purchase with “that” loan, we should still have $1 million in our coffers. I am told that money is earmarked for other purposes. We could meet our costs with a loan of $1.8 million—what the heck—round it off to $2 million. The $1.2 million contingency should cover the dollar difference, or we could always revisit the project when the dollar rebounds again. I have yet to hear a satisfactory answer to the consequences of saying no to this project.
Ray Bewza
Ashcroft