Photo: Water Treatment Plant in Pritchard (Google Maps)

The Thompson Nicola Regional District will be moving ahead with a new water treatment plant in Pritchard.

This as the TNRD board of directors approved the $1 Million dollar request from the Growing Communities Fund at Thursday’s (July 13) board meeting, to help cover the rest of the costs needed to move forward with the project.

TNRD Operations Manager Jamie Vieira says over the last three years, Pritchard has been under a water quality advisory or boil water advisory for 422 days, with nearly half of those in 2022 alone.

He says it’s because the Pritchard water treatment plant, similarly to the rest of the regional district, does not currently have a filtration system.

“Speaking specifically about Prichard, it’s a water intake from the river. We do chlorination and monitoring of the water but there’s no actual filtration of it,” said Vieira.

“So what that means is when there’s higher turbidity there’s often water quality advisories or boil water notices in that community.”

Vieira says the water filtration plant would essentially remove the turbidity in the water and in turn, eliminate the need for the water quality and boil water notices.

“It will also be able to reduce the amount of chemical chlorine usage in the water, so it’s a drastic improvement of what’s going to be coming out of people’s taps in that community.”

Vieira says the Pritchard water treatment plant project has been in the works for roughly 5 years, noting they received a $5 million grant back in 2020 towards the project.

However, due to COVID and inflation, he says the grant no longer fully covers the six million dollar project, which is why they went to the TNRD board Thursday, seeking for an additional $1 Million from the Growing Communities Fund.

“The Growing Community Fund will top up that (Federal) funding so we can move forward to this project without any increased cost in terms of borrowing to the residents in that area.”

With the final funds now secured, Vieira says are set to move forward with a detailed design and a tender process.

“The goal would be to have it tendered or procured late this year or early winter, so construction could start in the spring.”

Once the treatment plan is completed Vieira says they are expecting water rates to maintain what they are now.

July 13, 2023: This story has been updated from its original version to reflect a the decision from the TNRD board to approve the funding request for the new Pritchard Water Treatment Plant project.