FERRIDAY — It’s down to a matter of waiting on the weather for Ferriday water customers.

The construction of the new water storage tank will be completed next week, Mayor Glen McGlothin said.

“We’ve just got to wait for the weather to clear out before they can put it in (at the water plant),” he said.

Installing the new tank, which is being pre-fabricated off-site, will ultimately lead to getting the boil-water order the town has been under since May lifted.

In the meantime, McGlothin said he was able to get an extension from the Department of Homeland Security for the potable water storage tanks — known as “water buffaloes”— that are parked around the town. In December, the town received notice that the buffaloes were going to be removed.

“We get to keep the buffaloes, but the Department of Health and Hospitals has told us that we’re going to have to take over the (water) testing,” McGlothin said. “They have said they will help us out with it, but then we’re going to have to take it over.”

The precautionary boil-order was put in place by the DHH because the existing tank had a breach that exposed the water stored inside to the outside elements.

The breach began to form several years ago, and was significantly widened by Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

While the current work is to replace the tank, McGlothin has previously said that the ultimate solution for the town’s water problems will be to find a water source other than Old River, which officials have for years pointed to as the reason for high maintenance costs and problems at the plant.

Some of the problems include organic matter and naturally occurring chemicals in the water that result in the need for the water to be heavily treated.