The Town of Stewiacke has hired a firm to design a new water treatment plant, a little over a year after creating new rules to curb a development boom that was straining the aging system.
Town introduced rules last year to curb development that was causing strain on aging system
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Luke Ettinger · CBC News
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The Town of Stewiacke has hired a firm to design a new water treatment plant, a little over a year after creating new rules to curb a development boom that was straining the aging system.
On Monday, the town council voted to enter into a contract with Dillon Consulting for $1.4 million. The engineering firm will oversee the design and construction of a water treatment facility.
“We’re really looking forward to just getting started. It’s a project that, you know, we’ve needed to start long ago, and we’re now on the right track and moving as quickly as we can,” said chief administrative officer Marc Seguin.
Seguin said three competitive bids were received and the decision came down to price, with Dillon submitting the low bid.
The province is funding half of the design phase budget of $3.4 million.
Aged plant
The current water treatment system is beyond its capacity and at the end of its lifespan. The new system is expected to serve 5,100 people by 2035.
The St. Andrews River, the town’s water source, has volatile water levels and its high silt levels create problems in the treatment process.
“It’s taking us three times as long to treat the water from that source [than] is currently able to be done by other treatment facilities,” he said.
Issues with the system have forced the town to implement conservation measures — including asking residents this month to voluntarily cut back on lawn and garden watering, and to not wash outdoor surfaces like driveways, sidewalks and decks.
Last year, the town council put in place measures to slow down development pending the construction of a new facility.
The town received provincial approval in November to drill a well that can tap into an underground aquifer, rather than continue to rely on the river.
‘Hard to ballpark’
Seguin said another water source is needed before the new water treatment plant can come online.
“It’s hard to ballpark,” he said. “I’m estimating two to three years based on how difficult it is for us to find the second water source.”
The cost will also be finalized once a design is complete, Seguin said.
“The advanced cost estimates, which were very, very high level, gave us an estimate of $20 million, and that was plus or minus 20 to 30 per cent. So it just depends on the complexity of the design, where we can find water and some other parameters during the design process.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Luke Ettinger is a reporter with CBC News based in Truro, N.S. Reach him at luke.ettinger@cbc.ca.
