Merritt could receive drinking water soon, though city likely to remain evacuated

MERRITT, B.C. — The City of Merritt’s Emergency Operations Centre says engineers are doing a thorough inspection of the wastewater treatment plant and should have a better idea on Wednesday afternoon (Nov. 17) as to when residents can return home once the report is completed.

“At the moment, the wastewater treatment plant is sucking things through, but it’s just discharging. There’s absolutely no treatment that we can do,” said EOC Communications Manager Greg Lowis. “The engineers are going to be looking at what kind of work is necessary to get the wastewater treatment plant in a position where we can actually treat so that it can be safely discharged — instead of being discharged raw as it currently is.”

Lowis says the engineers, in assessing the water treatment plant, are looking at what kind of work needs to be done and how they can get potable water back to the community.

The city says there is the possibility for Merritt to be on a boil-water advisory in the next several days. However, it likely doesn’t mean residents will be able to return.

“We began the evacuation in the first place when the water treatment plant got to a position when the public works yard had to be evacuated and we lost the capacity to process sewage. If that was still the case, then I think we’d have to think very hard about whether or not we could allow anyone back in, even if there was the ability to provide drinking water. Obviously if you have people in the city flushing toilets and we have no ability to process that sewage, that creates severe environmental issues.”

Lowis estimates there are still about a thousand people left in Merritt who stayed behind, although that number is shrinking. He says anyone who needs water in the next week needs to leave.