$9.1-million emergency water intake project gets go-ahead

NEWS/ CITY HALL — A $9.1-million water-intake project got the go-ahead from Kamloops City Council today (Tuesday) after a brief discussion.

With a third of the funding hopefully coming from the federal government and another third from provincial, the cost to City taxpayers will be about $3 million. While there were a few questions about the necessity of a second intake to act as an emergency backup to the main intake on the South Thompson, the consensus was it would be a good thing to have for water-supply security.

“I think that for redundancy sake there’s certain pieces of our infrastructure that there’s expected to be a redundancy,” said Mayor Peter Milobar. “There’s certain services you just can’t go without.”

He pointed out the heavy train traffic along the South Thompson and that while the City’s main intake is upstream of the proposed Ajax mine tailings pond and probably wouldn’t be affected by any problem, the proposed Ruddick Creek mine is upstream from the intake and would present a risk.

The City will apply for federal-provincial infrastructure funding for the project, and borrow the rest.