Hudson’s Hope needs long-term solution for water treatment plant

HUDSON’S HOPE, B.C. — After months of being on a boil water advisory, Hudson’s Hope has potable water again, and the district is in the process of deciding on a long-term solution.

Robert Dauphinee, director of public works for Hudson’s Hope, said the set-up they are currently using is running well but wasn’t put in place for permanent use.

The District of Hudson’s Hope is evaluating its current process, which will help decide the final design of the water treatment plant.

“What we found out is the quality of the groundwater was changing over time, and the process we had in place wasn’t able to treat the water,” Dauphinee said.

After continuous issues with groundwater, the district decided to return to a river water source and had to change the water treatment process in order to do so.

“The process of treating groundwater was different from what we’d need for the Peace River,” Dauphinee said.

The district needed to purchase a clarifier, which is used to remove suspended solids from the water, and a UV disinfection unit.

“The water will come up under the river, go into the clarifier that’ll remove the suspended solids, and then it’ll go down into our cistern, which is then pumped up into the treatment plant,” Dauphinee explained.

“In there, it goes through a media filter, and then after the media filter, it goes through a cartridge filter, through the UV, we inject it with chlorine, then out to the community.”

Despite this solution working well, he said other technologies must be examined, mainly for the clarifier.

“We’ll have a consultant, do an evaluation, look at what we know of this streaming process, look at comparative processes, and then ultimately, we’ll be making the decision based on what we see is the most effective for the community,” Dauphinee said.

Even with river water quality changes, such as turbidity caused by heavy rainfall, the District of Hudson’s Hope is confident the new process will continue to run smoothly and will provide safe drinking water to its residents.

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