The Mayor of Ashcroft says the village’s new $8-million water treatment plant has been working as expected, in its first major test since being installed last November.

Barbara Roden says in years past, the village has had to issue boil water advisories during freshet season because of turbidity in the Thompson River.

“A lot of people were very anxious to have the new treatment plant come online,” she said. “The water was at one point coming in with a turbidity of 95 NTU. Anything above five, you have to issue a boil water notice, and coming out, it was coming out at 0.016 NTU”

“It just makes us realize the impact that the boil water notices have.”

Roden adds Ashcroft’s water is crystal clear right now, adding many residents have also reported less chlorine in the village’s water supply.

“That was how we treated the water. We treated it with chlorine and now that chlorine is the second stage in the treatment process after the water’s been filtered through the membrane filters, we have to use much less chlorine,” she noted. “People have noticed that they don’t get that smell or taste that they were very sensitive to.”

The new water treatment plan cost just over $8.2 million, with Roden noting that government grants covered about 70 per cent of the total cost.