LAC LA BICHE - A recent water line break on Feb. 22, along 101A Street in Lac La Biche, near the Royal Canadian Legion, burst for the second time shortly after repairs were done on the line, said Brian Shapka, the county’s Associate Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Infrastructure Services.
The initial replacement required a saddle valve (a valve mounted on the water line to support water flow) to repair the line, but broke shortly after on the property after the repair, said Jon Skjersven, the municipality’s utilities manager. However, the problem is not limited to one line.
The recent bursts along 101A Street, says Shapka, is an area that has roughly 60-year-old cast iron utility piping with issues. Unfortunately, the same area has had five breaks over the last six years including the most recent disruptions.
“On that block, we’ve had five breaks; one in January of 2016, December 2018, July of last summer, and then more recently on Feb. 22 we’ve had a break, we've repaired it... and overnight it popped again.”
With the residents in the area being severely affected with no water service and damage to their property from the breaks, solutions need to be found.
Waterline projects
Throughout the county, aging waterline systems that are made of varying cast iron, clay and other materials are part of a 10-year plus, $50 million staggered plan to replace and address the issues that have persisted over the years, said Shapka.
"A few years back we had done an exercise where we did identify all the pipes and at the time it was about a $50 million price tag to replace all of it—that was with the previous council. They had come up with a plan to potentially start replacing that on an annual basis,” he said.
Since 2016, roughly $16 million has been spent to address waterline projects throughout the county, but with the lines experiencing breaks as the department tries to plan for replacements, it does feed into the budget, said Shapka.
“We have reduced it somewhat since 2016, we have put about $16 million we have replaced. But with the breaks, we’ve had about half a million dollars of fixes in the same amount of time.”
Assessing priority
The plan to create a priority list is determined by the area, population, cost efficiency, and most importantly through a risk assessment—with councils' have approved of over the years, said Skjersven.
“This list that we have—and we’ve done this exercise with previous, previous councils—was a risk assessment based on multiple factors,” he said. “From the amount of people affected, the type of businesses or schools affected. That’s how we have made this list previously, but we definitely will have to look at it again—it’s been a little while.”
Although creating a new plan to resolve the breaks in the waterlines running throughout 101A Street is a is years away, it might be a better idea to prioritize the project since the area experiences issues, said Shapka.
However, Shapka says regardless of primary projects, at the end of the day all projects must be completed regardless of their size—including the breaks surrounding the Legion and 101A Street.
“This one—due to all the breaks now—it could be moved ahead it's estimated to be about half a million dollars to do that block. I mean that’s something we could look at moving up on the chart and switching things around, but essentially at some point they all have to be replaced.”
Next step
Providing clarity about the waterline plans will be brought back to council with more information on the history of repairs and breaks, alongside more information about the direction of the projects.
Finding solutions is vital, says councillor Darlene Beniuk, referencing financial implications to the ratepayers and considering the $50 million budget and current multi-million dollar projects, like the Main Street Revitalization, that are underway throughout the county already.
”We’re looking at millions of dollars' worth of infrastructure that needs to be replaced and no money or way which to do it. We may have to look at other alternatives,” for council to vote on the projects details, spending and how rates will be affected, she said.
