The Village of Telkwa is struggling to keep up with its water consumption demands.
“It’s a real safety issue,” says Mayor Darcy Repen.
“Just really concerned if there was a fire in the summer would we have enough in the existing tower?”
The water treatment plant doesn’t have the capacity to keep up with the water demand, leaving the water tower with dangerously low levels, according to Repen.
“Much of our village, especially the tower area and our downtown areas, are extremely low…and if something happens to that tower, we have no back-up.
“We’ve hit a brick wall here in Telkwa in terms of our water storage capacity. We have some new developments that are struggling because we can’t integrate large developments into our water system right now.”
Currently, the Village has water restrictions for residents throughout the summer to try and curb water usage.
Repen says the Village will pay 1/3 of a cost share with the Province and the Federal Government of over 2.5 million to upgrade the treatment plant so it can run 24 hours a day drawing out of two reservoirs with a new water tower.
The Town of Smithers is writing a letter in support of the Village’s water upgrade plans.
Repen says the Village has the money, they’re just waiting from the government.