The water treatment plant at Lake Cowichan is more or less completed.
It’s the less that is bothering members of Lake Cowichan town council.
Councillors had previously said they were unhappy with the idea of facing another turbidity problem this fall and possible boil water advisories, after having spent $6 million on a new treatment plant, just because the work still wasn’t finished months after it should have been completed.
Mayor Rod Peters, town CAO Joe Fernandez, Coun. Kristine Sandhu and a member of the town’s public works team took at tour on Aug. 14 with engineers from the project in order to go over everything thoroughly and find out what still needed to be completed.
Peters explained, “We went through everything from the beginning to the end and wrote down all the deficiencies. He wrote them down. When we finished, as we were walking away, I said: ‘Sean, I want you to write a report on it, and I want you to send me a copy of it and I’m going to want a weekly update on how you’re going on getting the deficiencies done.’ We have not heard anything back and I would like to direct to the CAO to get hold of Sean and ask him about his report and that we want it post haste, and get this thing moving.
“They’ve been dragging their feet for a long time. We’re going to be a burr under their saddle until they do something about it. The town wants to know. Let’s get a report on the deficiencies and get it done. It’s gone on long enough.”
Peters added that the engineer found even more deficiencies himself during the tour.
“He seems concerned but he did the last time seven months ago, so I think we’re just going to have to stay on him and keep biting at his heels until he does something. He said something about the paving being done by the end of August.”
Sandu asked, “Is there a timeline on this? It’s only been a week.”
Fernandez said that the engineer said he had to get hold of contractors.
Peters then interjected, “Well, it’s getting pretty close already. It doesn’t hurt to poke him.”