FERRIDAY — The tank is done.

Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin said Wednesday that construction on the town’s new water tank is complete, and that engineers and work crews were at the site moving heavy equipment out of the way.

“Everything is ready to go now,” he said. “All they have to do is hook it up, let the (Department of Health and Hospitals) put the water in it and do the chemical analysis.”

As for a date when that process will begin, McGlothin said he would let the engineers determine what that date would be.

The date of the tank hook-up will be published in local newspapers to allow people the time to prepare, McGlothin said.

“We are going to let them know ahead of time because we will probably be out of water for five or six hours while they fill up the tank, so I want the hospital, the dialysis center and everybody else to make sure they will have water while we have it turned off,” he said.

“We are going to give everybody plenty of time to get their stuff together.”

Ferriday’s water customers have been under a boil-water notice since May 2009.

The DHH placed the order over the system because of a breach in the only water storage tank. The breach had started forming in 2006 but grew significantly following damage from Hurricane Gustav in September 2008.

DHH protocol requires a boil-water order any time a portion of the water system is exposed to the elements — be it a break in a transmission line or a large hole in a water storage tank — and, while the water has not tested positive for harmful bacteria, health officials still require the precautionary measure.

In the last year, the town has made numerous repairs to the water treatment plant, and McGlothin has in the past expressed a desire to find a new water source — wells — rather than continue to use the current water supply, Old River, which has high levels of organic material and manganese, requiring heavy treatment.