The Melfort Water Treatment Plant is located on Reservoir Dr. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Melfort SaskWater Upgrade

Melfort Council approves SaskWater lease expansion to allow for upgrades

Jul 10, 2019 | 10:04 AM

Another bridge has been crossed for SaskWater when it comes to upgrades at the Melfort Water Treatment Plant.

At the Regular Council Meeting on Monday, July 8, Council approved to expand the lease for SaskWater. The lease added a section of land on the south end of the existing leased property.

The upgrades at the plant include a backup clarifier, and backup power to help at the plant, which serves the Codette Lake Regional Water System.

“Including those two things helps to ensure reliability and safety of the water supply system,” said Courtney Mihalicz with SaskWater. “And allow easier access to preventative maintenance and such.”

Mihalicz also noted that by adding the new pieces to the plant, the goal is to have much less Precautionary Drinking Water Advisories (PDWA) when something like a power outage occurs.

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The Water Treatment Plant was built in Melfort in 1958, and Mihalicz said they needed to do some work on it.

“It’s most definitely at a point in it’s life where it does require some upgrades to ensure that we can continue to meet the needs of the customers on that system,” she said.

Mihalicz added that residents of Melfort, and other places that rely on water from that plant, won’t notice a huge change in water quality.

Concerns from the City?

At Monday nights meeting, there were some concerns regarding the use of the area that will now be leased by SaskWater. Councillor Trent Mitchell had voiced concern about the use of the boat launch at the reservoir with the road leading to it now being SaskWater lease land. This comes not long after Council had approved to allow the exploration of possibly using the Melfort reservoir as a spot for training in water skiing and wakeboarding. Mitchell had said that there is a possibility that SaskWater could not allow vehicles to go through that spot of land, but Mayor Rick Lang said there shouldn’t be any problems.

“If SaskWater decided all of a sudden that ‘no this is our lease property, we’re not going to let vehicles cross it,'”, Lang told northeastNOW. “But that’s never been indicated to us then that could create a problem. So, a good question, but from our perspective, not a valid concern at this time.”

While Lang noted that residents may see better water, there is also some concern that comes with it.

“But at the same token, what I guess we are going to see over time is, our water rates increase from SaskWater,” Lang said. “So, with our current water loss that we have, we are going to be sending water down the storm sewer that costs even more, so it’s a double edged sword so to speak.”

Lang and Council have been very vocal about the need for some help with their water loss issues that partly stem from aging infrastructure. He said they don’t plan to stop asking for help.

“So we’re still going forward with that,” Lang said. “With respect to lobbying the provincial government for some help there, because the water loss numbers are totally unacceptable at this point in time.

As for the timeline of the project from SaskWater, Mihalicz said they hope to begin the design phase in September, followed by construction beginning possibly in March 2020, and hopeful substantial completion by March 2021. The total cost of the project is around $8.5 million, with the cost being split between SaskWater, the Provincial Government, and the Federal Government.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6