Moment with the Mayor: Water

Hi Neighbours:

The recent rain has been very helpful in lifting the fire ban, turning my brown lawn green, and most importantly, getting the crops moving. However, what the rain has not helped with is the stress on our water treatment plant. Currently, the Town of Kindersley uses water at the twice the national rate.

The stress on the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant and on our staff is caused by a couple of things:

First, we have a pump that is currently producing only at 84% capacity; our staff and engineers are working on a solution.

The other stress is our consumption. Based on 5,400 residents (our estimated population in the Kindersley Health Services Needs Assessment), our consumption data shows that each person is using more than 650 litres per day (staff assures me this does not include commercial and industrial users). The national average is 329 litres per day.

Another major factor to consider is that we need to have enough water for fire. Regulations set by the province say that municipalities must have a minimum storage capacity that is twice the average daily demand to prepare for emergencies (it is always a question of when an incidents happens, not if.) The Town meets this regulation but that means between the Haubrich Treatment Plant and the Water Tower, those storage units have to be 62% full.

The question arising from this surprising information is: What do we do? Council is having a special meeting on June 30^th at 6 pm to discuss water conservation and the necessary steps to bring our water consumption down to ensure that the Haubrich Water Treatment Plant can function as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Further to that, we have our staff and our facility to consider. If we do nothing, the equipment – and this equipment is expensive – will break down sooner and threaten the integrity of our water system. As an example, our plant is designed to run about 12 hours a day, but it currently runs around 17 hours a day. All of this also puts undue stress on staff who work very hard to provide Kindersley residents with the treated water we use every day. We are all a part of the solution. Let’s work together to be better users of our water resource.

Please write or phone if you would like me to discuss a particular topic. If you have any questions or comments, drop me a line at the town office or email me at mayorenns-wind@kindersley.ca. You can also check out my blog at http://mayorjohn.blogspot.ca/. I appreciate your feedback.