FERRIDAY — Work to prepare the Ferriday water plant to receive its new tank — and thus have the town removed from the boil-water order — has begun.

While the town waits for the recently ordered water tank to be fabricated, town workers have already begun the preliminary work for its installation.

Some of the work already done includes moving water and electrical lines, Mayor Glen McGlothin said.

“Where they are going to put the new tank was on top of our discharge line, so we had to move it,” he said.

The next step will be for crews with the tank contractor to start dirt work and install the forms the tank will sit on, McGlothin said.

“The tank is being built as we speak,” he said.

Meanwhile, improvements to the plant, which had fallen into disrepair in recent years, have been ongoing.

“We have been doing maintenance on the plant as we go, going through it with a fine-tooth comb,” McGlothin said.

The boil-water order was placed on the plant in May because of a breach in the water tank that formed in 2006 and was significantly widened following Hurricane Gustav, leaving the water exposed to the elements.

The water has not tested positive for dangerous bacteria, but Department of Health and Human Services protocol requires a boil-order be put in place when a tank is breached. Aside from boiling water or buying it, the National Guard has placed potable water distribution tanks around Ferriday.

The town’s plans are so far to install the new tank to get off of the boil-water order and then build a new plant that draws its water from an underground aquifer rather than its current source, Old River, which has problems with high levels of organic matter and manganese.

Camo Construction of Vidalia was awarded the bid for the new tank for $476,000.

The estimated cost for the new plant is $4.6 million.