With water levels receding considerably in the River Valley, Williams Lake crews are now ready to land a rental bridge today (Tuesday) crossing to the landlocked section where their grit building sits.
Director of Municipal Services Gary Muraca explained it’s importance.
“We are receiving a rental bridge from Prince George and we’ll get that over to the landlocked section of the Lagoons to the Grit building which will be very important to gain access to do our maintenance as well as getting that repair that is currently leaking out into the river. We are planning on starting to pump that material across the river through a pipe and into an adjoining cell which will then complete the process to where we are only discharging treated effluent to the river”.
Muraca added, “We still have to make about 7 kilometers of repairs downstream in various locations to the pipe for the discharge then we’ll go to the bridges, but this actually a really big win for us”.
Muraca anticipates that the bridge will be installed by noon today (Tuesday) where we’ll be able to get a pump on-site and we’re hoping to have the pump pumping by early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning or later on this afternoon and that will stop the discharge of the primary treated sewage into the river and then get us back into the normal operating system which will be treated effluent leaving the plant.
“This is a temporary solution for the sewage but we are optimistic that we will be able to have the permanent solution complete next week which includes another bridge and piping which will allow us to remove the pump” Muraca said.
“After many setbacks and watching the infrastructure deteriorate as rapidly as it did in the last 12 days”, Muraca said “We are extremely happy about today’s, and this weeks potential”.