Yellowknife water treatment plant to open next month

The boil water advisory now affecting about half the people in the Northwest Territories comes about one month before Yellowknife's new water treatment plant is scheduled to come into operation.

"Once the water treatment plant is in operation and that filtration is being properly used, then these turbidity events will be a thing of the past," says Mayor Mark Heyck.

• Boil water advisory issued in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah

The $32.5 million project the biggest ever undertaken by the city sits atop a rocky outcrop near Tin Can Hill, literally overshadowing the comparatively tiny plant it's replacing.

The plant, scheduled to go into operation in the second part of next month, will use a series of filters to remove sediment before water is treated for any harmful bacteria. That means it will be able to treat water no matter how much silt is in it.

The current plant has no filtration, and the chlorine gas it uses to kill bacteria becomes less effective when water contains silt or other particles.

The new plant will add a net $500,000 to the city's operating costs.

"The building is bigger and the power costs are going up because the water treatment process is more complex," says Heyck.

Next project: Pipe from Yellowknife River

After the new treatment plant comes into operation there will still be another big drinking water project: replacement of the 47-year-old, eight-kilometre-long submerged pipe that brings water from the Yellowknife River to the treatment plant.

"We've now got to take a look at our capital budget and reserve funds and start setting aside money for that," Heyck says, "because that will be another multi-multi million dollar project."

That project will likely get underway in another five or six years.