Portage College is banking on water to be the future of Lac La Biche County.
The college has ambitious plans to build two facilities in the municipality that would offer cutting-edge training for managing and using water – a precious resource that Lac La Biche has in abundance.
On Feb. 14, representatives from Portage College met with county council to say they want to build a reference testing lab attached to the water treatment plant on Beaverhill Road. The 2,000-square-feet lab would do chemical, DNA, and microbiology testing – and would be able to generate revenue. College president and CEO Dr. Trent Keough said the lab could be open as early as September.
The college is also planning a state-of-the-art water-monitoring teaching facility on the shores of Lac La Biche Lake between the hamlets of Plamondon and Lac La Biche. Keough said the project would be an environmentally sensitive approach to teaching water treatment techniques.
“We will build this facility – on this lake, or another one – but we’d like to build it here in Lac La Biche,” Keough told council. “We know the community appreciates Portage College, and we want to focus attention on the positive things that Lac La Biche can do.”
The college’s water resource training program got a $100,000 boost from Lac La Biche County in May 2011. They used that money to hire Lindsay Johnson as Water Resources Manager at the college. Johnson then developed two programs: one for training wastewater treatment operators for Alberta Environment certification, the other for water use in SAGD oil and gas operations.
Johnson said Portage’s municipal course is an integral part of being certified to work at wastewater plants – like Lac La Biche’s BNR Wastewater Treatment facility, scheduled to be completed next spring.
Stu Leitch, director of Portage’s Command and Industry Training Initiatives program, said Lac La Biche County could become leaders in monitoring and safeguarding what might be the world’s next hot resource.
“We believe the next real commodity is going to be water,” Leitch said. “Water is going to be precious. And we’re going to need skilled, trained people to manage that resource.”
At the meeting, Portage College didn’t ask for money – but they did ask for the county’s continued partnership and support. For their part, councillors expressed enthusiasm for the projects and how they could bring new technology and people to the community.
“I’d like to commend your footsteps on moving forward with this,” councillor Alvin Kumpula said. “This would be bringing development and progress, and I’d like to say thanks for that.”
