City of West Kelowna to spend $2.5M on upgrades to Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant

West Kelowna residents connected to the $75-million Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant person been dealing with brown, smelly h2o pouring from their taps for months owed to higher-than-normal levels of manganese that the metropolis says wasn’t being adequately treated.

“Have we had immoderate complaints astir soiled water? Yeah. It is an aged h2o strategy and successful aged h2o systems? You bash person chances of ungraded coming into a home. We’re doing continual flushing of that h2o system,” said West Kelowna Chief Administration Officer Ron Bowles.

During a gathering Tuesday, assembly voted to accelerate a $2.5-million fund to upgrade a failing aerator strategy successful the Rose Valley Reservoir.

“The aeration changes the cycles of the water. It keeps the manganese astatine the furniture of the water and not person the manganese travel into solution and travel into our system,” said Bowles.

But aft months of questionable water, immoderate are skeptical.

“It’s that what if: What if it doesn’t work? What is their adjacent step? What are their aboriginal plans?” said Rose Valley resident, Olivia Lawson.

“I’m acrophobic that astatine this constituent we’re conscionable going to marque much mistakes, walk much wealth without truly knowing what the result volition be,” said Rose Valley nonmigratory Scott Beaton.

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“We heard from the root h2o adept successful that gathering arsenic good that the aeration is going to assistance but we don’t precisely cognize however adjuvant it’ll be.”

The metropolis says this measurement was ever portion of the plan, but not this soon.

“As we started to spot much and much manganese travel into our root of h2o we did fund to bash this but successful 10 years from now,” said Bowles.

“But fixed the problems we had this year, we said we’re going to accelerate that.”

Also astatine Tuesday’s assembly meeting, assembly turned down a $50 recognition organisation to affected residents which is an an estimated outgo of $425,000.