Kitchener wastewater treatment plant to get upgrade

The Region of Waterloo has received a total of $2.2 million dollars in Green Municipal Funding (GMF) from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), to upgrade the Kitchener Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Councillor Berry Vrbanovic for the City of Kitchener and the President of the FCM says the GMF is the interest of a $550 million dollar endowment that the Federal government gave the FCM.

"The Federation manages that fund and takes the interest earned off that endowment each year and gives it as loan and grants to Municipalities for various green initiatives."

Vrbanovic says the technology the Region uses to process water will be upgraded to the most up to date modern standards, put in place by the Ministry of the Environment.

"The $2.2 million will improve on the technology the Region uses in terms of processing their waste water."

Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Conestoga Harold Albrecht says it's our responsibility to improve our water for the future.

"It's so crucial in terms of improving our environment and leaving the kind of environment to our children and grandchildren that each of us want to do, in terms on the water quality and the contamination of soils."

Albrecht also says that the material currently being spread on fields as sludge, will now be in a dry form, which means less space will be required for storage and transportation, thus reducing green house gases.