Two years after a fire that took the Wheatley Water Treatment Plant out of commission, the plant is about to get back online if all of the testing goes well.
Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission General Manager Darren Galbraith said the plan is to get the plant up and running the first week of December after the filters are tested this week to determine if they're performing as they should be.
Galbraith said it'll be very satisfying to get the water plant operating the way it did prior to the blaze following a few unexpected delays in restarting the facility.
"It's been difficult on us, it's been difficult on the residents, and all the commercial and industrial people that want to use the water from the system. It would be nice to put it behind us," said Galbraith.
Galbraith said the filter testing and disinfection should go smoothly. But it if doesn't, there could be a shortage of water and the situation would have to be rectified.
"We've gone through this at the Chatham Water Treatment Plant when we changed filters and backwashing processes and sometimes it goes smooth and sometimes it doesn't. I assume we didn't change any processes, we just changed the media [inner filtration components] out. So, it should go pretty smooth," Galbraith noted.
Galbraith noted the filter testing should take a couple of days to complete if everything goes well.
Galbraith added that the temporary water treatment plant that has been in place since early 2024 was shutdown on Friday.
A fire broke out at the plant on September 13, 2023 in the generator room during regular maintenance, significantly damaging the pump, the compressors, and electrical wires. They had to be replaced, along with several other critical plant components that were damaged in the blaze.
