While it didn't help them this week with the massive power outages that have hit the province, the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant just happens to be in the middle of a $40 million upgrade that could have been extremely helpful.

General Manager Ryan Johnson explains that they are completely re-doing their electrical system that will include back up generators that could be used when the power grid goes down like it did this week.

"The backup generators that are included would let the plant to run at 50% capacity right from the lake to the main plant and if the cities update some of their pumps, then we could run the plant at 100%."

The plant was down for a total of 19 hours this week due to power failures but unlike Regina where they had to issue a conserve water advisory, Moose Jaw has a better water reserve and there was no concern from the plant's perspective.

The work has been years in the making and was only made possible this fall thanks to a $20 million grant from the federal and provincial governments. The water corporation along with the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw will pick up the rest of the tab,

"Once this project is completed, the plant will be self-sufficient so in case of a power outage, lightning strike, plough winds, or tornadoes the plant can run without power from the electrical grid until such time that the lines get repaired."

Being that winter weather has hit, most of the actual work won't start until the spring of 2019 and continue into 2021 although work has already started on the production of some parts like power poles for the transmission line.