By Angela Brown

City eyes taking over provincial reservoir

Aug 24, 2017 | 4:51 PM

The City of North Battleford is looking at the possibility of taking over a water reservoir in North Battleford currently owned by the province.

The city still has to negotiate the costs to acquire the reservoir, located near the existing Saskatchewan Hospital, but needs to conduct an assessment first to determine what upgrades are needed before proposing a purchase to the province. 

“The city has discussed this with the province in the past,” Mayor Ryan Bater said. “But before we initiate discussions, we want to be able to study it to determine the strength of it.”  

The city will be allocating the cost for the assessment in its 2018 budget. The assessment is estimated at roughly $35,000.

The city is currently using the reservoir through an agreement with the province, but it will soon be decommissioned, closing off its access point.  

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“If there is an opportunity for us to take ownership of that reservoir, and continue using it on a cost-effective basis, that is what we are trying to explore,” Bater said.      

The mayor pointed out decommissioning will cost the province, so buying it would be a win-win for North Battleford and Saskatchewan. 

The reservoir is currently used for backwash at the city’s FE Holliday Water Treatment Plant, Bater said. It can also supply some potable water to the city. 

However, before the city commits to taking over the reservoir, at a cost to be determined, it needs to conduct an analysis to assess the integrity of the structure, and see “whether it is in good shape,” he added.

The mayor said the backwash process, which is required regularly, involves pushing the water back through the filters, to release sediment.

The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency recommended the city either take control of the reservoir or find another way to use the water from the Water Tower/114 Street reservoir, to backwash the filters.

Bater added if there are negotiations they will happen after the city assesses the reservoir.  

“We need to backwash that water plant, so having the reservoir available to do that allows us to continue doing that in the way we have been,” said the mayor. “If we don’t have access to that reservoir, the water would have to be all the way to 114 Street [at the Water Tower], which is very far away in order to backwash the entire water plant. So having that reservoir would be advantageous.”

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW