A tender is out for the giant tanks, an order was placed for the US-made PFAS cleaning factory at the heart of the plant back in May and now at a tender has been released for the earthworks on the Morris Road site.

Several deadlines for the completion of the plant have already expired.

This latest tender for a concrete building slab to allow for the installation of pressure vessels, resin tanks and all associated pipework is expected to be awarded in mid February.

The new plant is expected to treat all of the town's drinking water and not the small portion the current emergency plant provides to remove contaminating PFAS from the water.

Engineers had decided a treatment plant 10 times the size of the emergency plant now operating in Katherine was needed.

The new larger plant is expected to remove PFAS from 10 megalitres of water whether from bore or river per day, ending the need for restrictions, first imposed in 2017.

A new $4m emergency water plant was flown in from the USA which began operating in October 2017 to remove PFAS from one megalitre of contaminated bore water per day.

The same company, ECT2, is building Katherine's larger plant.

It has been three years since it was discovered potentially harmful PFAS chemicals leaking from the Tindal RAAF Base have polluted the town's drinking water.

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday at 6am from the Katherine Times. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here.