(File photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Water security

Treatment plant committee prepares to test the waters

Mar 5, 2021 | 5:00 PM

By the end of this month, the committee overseeing a proposed new water treatment plant west of Prince Albert, anticipates reaching out to upwards of 600 home owners affected by the development.

The project is a joint venture between the Town of Shellbrook, Rural Muncipality (RM) of Shellbrook, and Prince Albert Rural Water Utility. The total cost is estimated to be in the area of $45 million. Steering committee Chair Brent Miller told paNOW the plant itself would be located in the area just east of where the Shell River meets the North Saskatchewan River. In addition to the pipeline that runs to the town, there would also be other pipelines tapping into areas north, south and west of Prince Albert including Peter Pond, RM of Buckland and even Nordale.

“We are going to pick a corridor that’s either two or three kilometres on either side of that pipeline and call everybody who lives in that corridor to see how interested they’d be in signing up,” Miller explained.

“We want to expand out into further areas,” _{– Buckland Reeve Don Fyrk}

In late January, the steering committee committed $60,000 for a feasibility study. The results of those studies, which include a conceptual design of the project, as well as the potential impact on existing Shellbrook water rates, are expected to be known by later this month. The biggest measuring stick will be how the potential project compares to an existing $7.8 million plan, if the town were to go forward alone.

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“We are hoping we can avoid the bulk of that,” Miller said, adding the preliminary numbers are looking favourable.

With respect to the calls going out later this month, Miller described them as a survey type and he politely asked homeowners not to hang up when they receive a phone call, explaining the numbers are very important.

Shellbrook’s issues with highly mineralized water run deep and one of the hopes going forward, is that this project will not only upgrade the town’s drinking water, but also help attract future industry to the area. Miller explained the pipeline to Shellbrook would likely run through the Crutwell and Holbein areas.

“There’s just tons and tons of acreages and some of them have good water and some of them don’t,” he said.

Plans for the project were initially announced in January, and Miller said the steering committee has had a lot of interest from both local members of the provincial legislative assembly (MLA), as well as Prince Albert’s member of Parliament Randy Hoback. Both have offered the committee advice with respect to applying for grants.

“We’re anticipating there’s gonna be some post COVID stimulus packages coming out,” Miller said. “Our thinking on the project with the steering committee is we want to be ready to be the first ones to the trough.”

Due to the obvious impact in the RM, Buckland Reeve Don Fyrk has been watching with keen interest. He told paNOW he supports the project.

“For the future we have to look at our own water treatment plant, because the city can only supply so much and we want to expand out into further areas so this seems to be the road to go,” he said.

–

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell