A significant infrastructure upgrade will cost Petrolia taxpayers a lot less than originally thought.
Mayor John McCharles says the Ontario Clean Water Agency was asked to review the ten-year $25-million repair project at the Bright's Grove water treatment plant.
He says the "must-do" list totals $14-million.
"When it was $25-million, we were probably looking at a rate increase of around 10% per year," says Mc Charles. "With the new numbers, we're probably looking at less than 5%. Hopefully it's closer to 2-3%."
The agency says an $8.75-million replacement of the water intake isn't necessary because of high Lake Huron water levels.
Repairs this year total over $600,000 and another $2.7-million is being spent to replace the water reservoir with the province picking up $2-million of that.
