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New infrastructure aimed at protecting water quality in Lake Country

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Lake Country aims to improve water quality with new infrastructure
Watch: Lake Country aims to improve water quality with new infrastructure – Jun 24, 2019

The District of Lake Country showed off some of its newest infrastructure Monday.

The $8.3-million water booster station and reservoir projects are expected to make the water quality for Lake Country residents more reliable and help prevent boil water notices.

Before the new treated water reservoir was built, the district wasn’t storing chlorinated water instead the water was chlorinated as it went out to customers.

“There was no storage of the chlorinated water so if we had an issue with our chlorination, then we would have to issue a boil water [notice],” said utility superintendent Mike Mitchell.

The new reservoir will give the district an opportunity to respond to issues with the chlorination system before they impact customers.

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Also new is a booster station that allows the district to switch between drawing water from Okanagan Lake and Beaver Lake.

Engineering technician Kiel Wilkie explains that if either one of the lakes become compromised, the booster station give the district the ability to switch to a back up source.

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The booster station has a bigger capacity than the facility its replacing, meaning the district can rely on Okanagan Lake water longer when Beaver Lake water isn’t yet clean enough for use after the spring runoff.

Wilkie said reduces the risk the district would be forced to switch to Beaver Lake water early in the year and potentially have to issue a boil water notice.

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Now that these projects are in the books the district is looking at installing a filtration plant near the water reservoir that will get the colour out of the water coming from Beaver Lake.

The projects were completed since mid-2018. The water reservoir, for instance, has been online for a little over a year.

For the municipality, Monday’s media event was a chance to thank Ottawa and Victoria for covering more than $5-million of the cost.

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