By Shane O'Neill

Price tag for improvements to city’s water reservoirs gets bigger

Aug 18, 2016 | 5:44 PM

Essential upgrades to two of the water reservoirs in Prince Albert are going to get more expensive for taxpayers.

At Monday’s executive committee meeting, Prince Albert’s water treatment plant manager, Andy Busse, presented a report on the status of the reservoirs at Second Ave. and Marquis Rd., including scheduled upgrades to the Marquis Rd. Reservoir (MRR), and the news could prove costly.

“With the re-scope and looking at the upgrades that we need to do to sustain the city for future growth and operation, the budget’s looking at something like $4.5 million to do the work on the two reservoirs,” Busse said at the meeting.

The report indicates that in the event of an emergency where one of the two facilities is forced to close, the current system would not be able to sustain “fire flow” for the city.

Fire flow is the minimum requirements necessary to service fire hydrants across the city.

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P.A. is serviced by three water reservoirs. The main water treatment plant reservoir on River St. serves everywhere below the hill, while the reservoirs on Second Ave. and Marquis Rd. serve the portion of P.A. on top of the hill, known as Zone 2.

Given the current condition of the two facilities, should the MRR be forced to close unexpectedly, the Second Ave. reservoir would be unable to service Zone 2, leaving residents on the hill without water service.

In order to get the MRR up to par and to sustain future growth in the city, nearly every pipe, generator and piece of pumping equipment will need to be replaced.

“I think we’ve been fortunate to make things work, through what we’ve just experienced here in the last three, four weeks,” Coun. Martin Ring said during the meeting. “We can’t go without doing the changes.”

Council initially penciled in $1.5 million for the original scope of work. But, after a thorough assessment of the water system by a third-party engineering firm in 2015, several weaknesses in Zone 2, including the concerns around fire flow, were brought to light.

While both facilities are in need of upgrades and standard improvements, service to Zone 2 and the MRR are currently the priority.

Originally built as a back-up pumping station to support the Second Ave. reservoir, MRR was never intended to serve as a stand-alone system. Since opening in the early 1970s, few upgrades had been done to the facility and pumping equipment.

“This reservoir is our new reservoir up there,” Busse said. “but it’s also 30 years old already.”

The revelation of MRR’s lack of upgrades over the years raised some questions among councillors.

“Do we have any idea why work wasn’t done on an ongoing basis to upgrade these things?” Coun. Rick Orr asked flatly. “How do we propose to keep our equipment online and in working order in the future? Have we built that into our budgeting?”

“I’m not going to talk about the past,” Mayor Greg Dionne said in response. “It’s here, it’s our problem and we’re going to solve it.”

The executive committee recommended the changes to the project budget be made. Council will vote on the budget at their next meeting on Aug. 29.

shane.oneill@paNOW.com

On Twitter: @stroneill