The regional waterline will be bringing more than just clean drinking water to communities across the region; it will be bringing a lifeline.
The regional waterline will be bringing more than just clean drinking water to communities across the region; it will be bringing a lifeline.
For over 15 years the regional waterline has been a project in the making, and after years of waiting in anticipation, last year the provincial government announced it's a go.
"It's something that is very essential for the sustainability of your community. In our case here, it's more for the region, because the waterline right now is being designed to service the entire region," explained Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski.
For Sobolewski, the process started in 2000, when he worked for the MD of Bonnyville as the director of utilities. At the time, he ran a 10-inch waterline from Cold Lake to Ardmore, with a handful of reservoirs.
This project sparked his passion for bringing clean drinking water to communities throughout the Lakeland, including the Town of Bonnyville.
"For years, the City of Cold Lake council was concerned about lake levels going down, more so for Saskatchewan communities, because Cold Lake water eventually feeds into the northern Saskatchewan system," said Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland. "We felt as a council that it wasn't our place to decide if water should go from Cold Lake to anywhere in the region, it was a provincial matter."
After years of putting in requests, the provincial government finally managed to pull together the funding to get the project off the ground.
"Things really started to move forward when the water quality of Moose Lake was demonstrated to be very tough water to treat, particularly with new regulations.
More importantly, it isn't very sustainable because its recharge rate is one in every nine years," expressed Sobolewski. "That means, once the population reaches a certain threshold, it would be very difficult to try to maintain the lake levels."
For Cold Lake council, it's a weight off of their shoulders.
"The government is now taking responsibility that they're mandating the water is going to go regionally," Copeland said. "That took a big issue off of our backs, because we didn't want that politically."
Once the decision was made to build the waterline, tests were completed on both a provincial and municipal level, to ensure water levels in the lake would remain sustainable, regardless of the communities tapping into the waterline.
Both sustainability tests completed gave the project the rubber stamp in saying the lake could sustain the population.
"Studies indicate that the lake can withstand having as many as 100,000 people on the waterline and the water system itself," explained Copeland. "Everyone knows Cold Lake's water is clean and it's cold."
Another concern for the municipality was tying in the Cold Lake North First Nations reserve. Copeland believes they have often been left out of the equation when it comes to planning the project.
"I think having safe drinking water for the region is important," emphasized Copeland. "Water is a part of life."
The project is currently in the engineering stages, and will soon be moving to tender.
All municipalities involved would like to see local businesses put their bid in for the $80-million project. Construction could start as early as this winter, wrapping up sometime in 2019.
"It's one of those things that is joining the region together. I think that's great. I think it's one of those first steps at working together and mending fences. I think this is really a great thing," said MD of Bonnyville Reeve Greg Sawchuk.
The exact route of the waterline hasn't been mapped out yet, however, there are some options.
"It's going to be the realization that we're providing the best water that's around... the environment that the water source is coming from in Cold Lake is very pure, it's very good water," Sobolewski said.
