The City of White Rock has announced it is moving forward with what will now be a single arsenic and manganese water treatment facility at the Oxford pumping station site.
At its regular meeting Monday (Nov. 6) council approved a contract for $12,611,000, to NAC Construction Ltd. for design and building of the treatment facility.
While the City of White Rock utilities department originally contemplated treatment plants at both the Merklin and Oxford pumping sites, studies conducted by city staff in conjunction with UBC-based research group RES’EAU WaterNET, determined that a single treatment plant would be the most cost-effective means for reducing both arsenic and manganese in city water, according to a report to council from utilities, engineering and municipal operations manager Dr. Saad Jasim.
A city press release issued Wednesday said: “The water treatment plant will blend the water from the city’s seven wells and provide the treatment processes required to ensure that the same high quality water will be achieved throughout the city.”
According to the release, the treatment will include “pre-oxidation with ozone followed by oxidation/filtration followed by adsorption for the removal of both manganese and arsenic.”
The process will also remove naturally occurring ammonia and iron, the release said.
Total costs for the project have been pegged at just over $14 million, of which nearly $12 million has been received as federal-provincial grant funding through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund.
More to come…
