New £2.5m water treatment works for Dalwhinnie back on track
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Work has resumed on a £2.5m new water treatment works for Dalwhinnie following it being put on hold at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak with the plant expected to open next summer.
The facility will have the capacity to produce up to 200,000 litres of drinking water per day and will be supplied by raw water from the River Trium via four new boreholes.
These will replace the existing ones supplying the village which are reaching the end of their lifespan.
The current works have been deemed 'deficit' by the water company who said the switch will provide a reliable supply of clear and fresh drinking water for years to come in the Dalwhinnie area.
Highland Council planners using delegated powers have just given the go-ahead to the two additional water boreholes required submitted in revised plans.
The modern plant will uses nano-filtration membranes as the main part of the treatment process.
The new boreholes by the River Truim are replacements of existing boreholes alongside.
A Scottish Water spokesperson said: “We welcome the decision to grant planning consent for infrastructure associated with two additional boreholes which are needed to ensure we can meet the future needs of our customers in Dalwhinnie.
“Following careful review of plans, we updated the local community last month about plans to resume work to deliver our essential work to renew the main water infrastructure serving the village at an estimated cost of around £2.5 million.
"This will ensure we can continue to provide the village with a reliable supply of clear and fresh drinking water for years to come.
"Work on site had been paused in late March due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has now resumed with strict safeguards in place to minimise health risk for the team working on site and for our customers locally.
“We will continue to keep the community updated on progress, including the expected delivery of the new water treatment works itself once the preparation of the site is complete.
"We are working to have the replacement water treatment works ready to serve customers by summer 2021.”
The spokesman added: "There should not be any significant impact on the water customers receive but it should make disruption to normal supply less likely to occur in future and provide better capacity for seasonal peaks in water usage."
Scottish Water has said that a trial revealed that the proposed two boreholes did not give the required yield for the village especially at busy times for tourism.
The new planning application was for the installation of an access track to service water supply boreholes with borehole chamber covers, localised ground re-profiling and the erection of stock proof fencing on land to the east of Dalwhinnie.
The amended proposal overtakes the smaller scale plans using two boreholes that had been approved by Highland Council in February, last year.
