Regional Water Plant Provides Assurances of Good Water

People who live in Vauxhall have been assured they’ll have a good, steady supply supply of high quality, treated water. The new Vauxhall Regional Water Treatment Plant has been officially opened.   An additional 57 kilometres of pipeline will also carry treated water to Hays and Enchant.

Premier Alison Redford said, “We’re seeing the ability to provide cleaner water more effectively,  more cost effectively by regionalizing water treatment and bring in new technology, so it’s a very exciting day.”

The new water treatment plant has twice the capacity of the old one.  It will consolidate three existing water treatment facilities into one, to ensure ratepayers in the three communities receive get high quality, treated water at a good cost.

“The most important thing we have in Alberta and makes us proud to be Albertans is our quality of life,” said Premier Redford.  “One of the things about our quality of life is potable water and making sure that people can choose to live where they like and have the quality of life that all Albertans should be able to expect.”

The 19 million dollar plant came in 700 thousand dollars under budget.  Vauxhall Mayor Gordon Brown said the old water treatment plant was in such poor shape that it was just hanging on by a thread.

“Our people were going crazy trying to keep it operating,” the mayor said.  “Every time there was a lightening storm we had a problem with it, so when we initiated this plan it was a great thing for the town.”

Water treatment plants in the other two communities were also in bad shape.  Through Water for Life, a 16 million dollar Water for Life grant from the Alberta government,  they came up with enough money to build the new plant.   Mayor Brown says farmers and other rural residents can come to town and purchase treated water.  Sometime in the future, he said, some of them are expected to be put on lines that carry water to them.