Nipissing First Nation looking to make water treatment plant improvements

Nipissing First Nation Chief-elect Scott McLeod says one of the major projects the First Nation will see completed during this new term of the band council is making sure the water treatment plant in Garden Village is finally built to capacity.

“It was under-built and we're still trying to fix that,” McLeod told Frangione. 

McLeod insists the water going from the plant into people's homes is safe to drink. 

However, he believes it is not a perfect system for the size and volume that it needs to serve. 

He says the plant is constantly monitored to make sure the byproducts of the chlorination system remain uniform and don't create issues for the community.

“So the water is perfectly safe to drink but we want to get (the plant) to the point where we're not worried about it,” he said.

McLeod says the design work that brings the plant to its proper capacity has been completed and now it's a matter of going through the regular bureaucracy of approval and funding stages.

Bringing the Garden Village water treatment plant up to its proper capacity is one of three water-related projects being pursued at Nipissing First Nation.
McLeod says still in the works is a plan to develop a water plant for NFN residents in the Duchesnay-Yellek area at the North Bay end and just recently Nipissing First Nation got approval for a plant to service the residents in what's locally known as Veteran's Lane, which is at the east end of Sturgeon Falls.

Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.