Water

It has been brought to my attention that there are some people who think the Town has a water shortage. The Town does not have a water shortage. We have sufficient water for all of our residential, commercial, and industrial needs; this includes the new developments coming on stream in the next year.

As a quick backgrounder: we pipe our water 55 kms from the South Saskatchewan River. It is pumped to Snipe Lake where it is stored in an underground reservoir and then pumped east to Eston and surrounding RMs and north to Kindersley and surrounding RMs. Our water is stored in a reservoir and then pumped from there to Kindersley where the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant processes the water and distributes to our neighbouring RMs on the water line and Kindersley. If I recall correctly water is pumped to Kindersley at 48 litres per second. The Haubrich Water Treatment Plant treats water at about 45 litres per second and then pumped to the Water Tower to be distributed in town. One of our operating procedures is if the stress on the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant is to high then the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant Manager calls industrial users and tells them to shut down.

The challenge that the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant faces is flow rate. For example: some users use a lot of water very quickly. The Haubrich Water Treatment Plant can only clean water at a certain rate. Thus if the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant can only process water at 45 litres per second, but some users want water at 60 - 90 litres per second, then there will be a problem in an hour. When water is consumed faster than it is produced the required water is drawn out of reserves; typically this is done during non peak times such as late in day and very early in the morning. Once the consumption is back to a level where production is greater than consumption, then the reserve is built up again. Kindersley has enough water, the challenge is some users draw water faster than it can be produced. We don't have a water shortage; it is a question of managing rates of consumption for sustainability.

We have taken steps to address our challenges:

• the backwash water project with Hollands; 
• once this project is fully implemented it will reduce demand on the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant about 15% or more.
• tiered water rates;
• a user pay philosophy to encourage conservation.
• developing a mechanical waste water treatment plant with a water product suitable for industrial purposes;
• this will reduce the amount of water treated by the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant.

We are looking ahead to ensure Kindersley is not one of the 130 communities around Saskatchewan that has been told by provincial authorities that our infrastructure cannot support any more growth. Recently I met a mayor whose community had to reject new housing and commercial and industrial development because their infrastructure could not support growth. Kindersley is in a good situation. Council and Admin are working together to implement our:

• Asset Management Plan
• 10 Year Capital Plan
• Infrastructure Needs Assessment
• Official Community Plan

We have the infrastructure to support growth but the real bottleneck holding up sustainable growth is housing. And, I want to assure you I am tired of saying this: "we are working on it."

One final note on this topic: last week I met with and gave a tour to a Ministry of Economy official about the growth in Kindersley. He too will now be helping us with housing in an indirect manner.

As Sir Isaiac Brock said: Surgite! (Onward)