By Shane O'Neill

Officials express relief as water from North Sask. River cleared for treatment

Sep 16, 2016 | 4:54 PM

Relief is the best word to describe the reaction from officials to today’s news that water from the North Saskatchewan River can be treated for drinking once again.

“I just took a big sigh of relief and I’m going to sleep pretty good tonight,” Mayor Greg Dionne said.

The cities of P.A., North Battleford and Melfort all received the go ahead from the Water Security Agency (WSA) to resume drawing water from the river. P.A. was pumping water in from the South Saskatchewan and Little Red rivers with emergency pipelines since July. North Battleford and Melfort were using existing wells and surface reservoirs for their water supplies.

Melfort’s Director of Works and Utilities Gerald Gilmore said his municipality is in the process of getting a consultant to flush and clean the intake line. He expects the city will begin taking water from the river eight to 10 days after the flushing is complete.

“From our perspective, we were looking forward to this decision,” Gilmore said. “The river water offers a better quality of water than the surface reservoirs.”

World Championships

Power, Cozens lead Canada to 5-3 win over Finland at hockey worlds

5h ago

World Class Softball

Prince Albert ready to swing big on international stage

May 17, 2024

Contest Time

Beach Radio making waves with 14th annual Summer Free Ride contest

May 17, 2024

Jeff Da Silva, manager of engineering services for Prince Albert, echoed the relief of the mayor and his colleague in Melfort.

“The city is certainly pleased that we’re entering the end phase of this incident,” he said on Friday.

He also confirmed city staff were going to prepare the treatment plant and intake line for flushing over the weekend. He expects the required flushing to be completed by Monday, with water being taken from the river for treatment shortly after.

As well, Da Silva explained the testing city staff completed on the water and pipeline oil, independent of the WSA and other authorities. He said they sent samples to the manufacturer of their treatment process facilities for analysis.

“We wanted to find out for ourselves what the plant has in terms of capabilities of removing any suspended solids that might have oil attached or be oil impacted,” he explained. The manufacturer was able to confirm there should be no issues in treating the water from the river in its current state.

Prince Albert uses a multi-barrier approach for protecting the water that enters the plant for treatment. An online monitoring system tracks the quality of the water entering the plant, where the multi-barrier system removes sediments from the water. The plant then doses, or treats, the water with a powdered activated carbon, which can remove certain components of any hydrocarbon impacted water.

With funds provided by Husky Energy, the plant was upgraded to include the online monitoring system as another line of defence. The new monitoring system, and the assurances of the WSA, give Da Silva and other city officials confidence the treated drinking water will be safe for consumption

P.A. MP Randy Hoback, also responded in light of the good news from the WSA.

“This has been an ordeal and I want to compliment all those involved from the reeves and the mayor for the leadership they’ve shown in this emergency,” he said.

Disassembly and removal of the temporary pipelines is expected to take several weeks. City staff is asking residents to be mindful of all workers and to respect the speed restrictions in areas with workers present.

shane.oneill@panow.com

On Twitter: @stroneill

Editor’s Note: This story was edited at 3:35 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 19 for clarification.