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West Nipissing council aiming to fix water issues in Verner

West Nipissing council is spending $100,000 on an environmental assessment to help determine how to best get a water supply to Verner to improve the existing water situation in the community.

The EA will look at different options available to the municipality and it’s a process that may take about six months.

Councillor Dan Roveda says council already has a couple of options at its disposal.

He says one is to extend a 17 kilometre-long line from the Sturgeon Falls water plant to Verner at a cost of $12.3 million.

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Another option is to extend a water line from Cache Bay to Verner.

This would cost $7.6 million because the line is 10.5 kilometres in length.

Staff told council that the Sturgeon Falls plant can handle the extra capacity because it’s currently operating at less than half capacity.

Staff believes that capacity will hold true to about the year 2040 and that’s because of only a small amount of growth forecast for the municipality.

Staff says growth in many parts of Northern Ontario has been small and some communities have even seen negative growth over the years.

The environmental assessment would also see at least two public meetings carried out in Verner.

The plan is to have the EA study the water line issue, but the consultant will also look at the sewer line because there are sewage issues in Verner.

The study would likely be followed by detailed engineering which takes about two to three more months.

That’s assuming council agrees to some sort of water line extension to Verner.

Council was told if it opted for an entirely new plant for Verner, that’s a process that could take two years.

Regardless of the option that’s finally agreed upon, council is expected to pursue government funding to help it fund the work.

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