12/11/08

Residents of Castleford will now have cleaner water thanks to a new arsenic treatment plant.

The Castleford mayor started the process of cleaning up the towns water in 2003. This all came from requirements that were mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mayor Rita Ruffing said, "It was a unfunded mandate from the EPA that towns must meet the standard that they lowered from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion and we ran at about 20 parts per billion."

Ruffing says the new plant will give residents a better idea of where their water is going... but the project didn't come cheap.

In fact it ended up costing one point $6 million and Ruffing says it was hard to find funding; but they were lucky to get support from the state and federal government.

She said, "I think we are all glad we went out to find the funding because we couldn't have done it on our own."

With so many other towns struggling statewide to meet the requirements the EPA says this makes Castleford unique.

Ruffing says, "We are one of the first in the state to meet the mandate for the arsenic levels."