By Taylor MacPherson

Reservoir upgrades to extend water storage by two days

Jun 27, 2017 | 5:05 PM

Prince Albert’s water treatment system is getting some much-needed upgrades.

The City recently announced the construction of a second water reservoir, which will be built at the water treatment plant site on River St. Treatment Plant Manager Andy Busse said the new reservoir will add 15 million litres to the city’s water reserves, which translates into at least two days of water supply under normal use, and even longer if water restrictions are put into place.

“Having the two reservoirs is going to give us a lot more flexibility,” Busse said. “It would have been nice to have that last year.”

Beyond just extending the city’s emergency supplies, Busse said the new reservoir will act as a redundancy to would allow city staff to completely shut down one of the reservoirs for maintenance or in the event of a failure.

The new reservoir project carries a $12 million price tag, but after federal and provincial grants the city will only need to come up with $3 million for the project. A sod turning is scheduled to be held in September, with the project slated for completion by the end of 2018.

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There are other water-related upgrades planned beyond the new reservoir as well. Busse said the reservoirs located on Second Ave. and Marquis Road – which supply the East and West Hills – are getting a $6.1 million refurbishment to increase their pumping capacity. The upgraded facilities will be enough to allow for 30-35 years of population growth before more improvements are required, Busse said.

Although last summer’s Husky oil spill threw the city’s limited water supply into the spotlight, Busse said the upgrades have been a long time coming.

“We actually had the funding application in over two years ago for this,” he said. “We knew we needed to have more storage capacity, but us going through that emergency last year definitely brought that to light, and it didn’t hurt our chances of getting [the grants].”

With the new upgrades in place, Busse said the city will be much better prepared to deal with another similar emergency, should it ever occur.

Taylor.macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews