The Chair of TransAqua says the funding coming together to modernize the Wastewater Treatment Facility is terrific news.
David Muir says this new project is adding secondary treatment to the process at the facility.
He says they expect construction to start in the Spring of 2017 with completion by 2020.
“We have a lot of equipment to order, a lot of lead time on some of that equipment, some large equipment, this is one of the largest infrastructure projects financed in the province of New Brunswick in recent years,” says Muir. “So it’s a lot of work to it, our staff are going to be up to it, so we’re very grateful to the provincial and federal government.”
Muir was asked if the project going forward would mean an end to the recent rate hikes.
“We’re very hopeful that over the next number of years that we’ll be able to address the rates very aggressively, depending on what unforeseen circumstances come up,” says Muir. “We expect to be able to freeze rates for some period of time, at least in the short term.”
He was also asked how many jobs would be created by the expansion.
“It’s a lot of contractor work, so there’ll be a number of local contractors, a lot of concrete work so I don’t know the exact figures about the number of employees outside,” says Muir. “But even within TransAqua we’ll be hiring two, three, four new employees to run the expanded plant.”
Muir says this expansion should allow them to easily continue functioning another three decades.
