City of Powell River officials celebrated upgrades to the drinking water system at a grand opening of the new UV (ultraviolet) treatment facility and reservoir on Friday, May 18.
Richard Stogre, the city’s manager of engineering services, was emcee for the event. Dr. Elsie Paul, a Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation elder, gave a blessing and MLA Nicholas Simons, who represents Powell River-Sunshine Coast, also spoke at the event. Councillor Debbie Dee, acting mayor, read a statement from MP John Weston, who represents West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, and awarded prizes for the children’s colouring contest.
The total budget for the project was $8.5 million. Two-thirds of the cost came from infrastructure stimulus funds from the federal and provincial governments, with the balance from the city. The project included connecting the water main from Townsite to Wildwood, constructing a booster pump station at Aspen Avenue and Cedar Street and the UV facility and a two-celled reservoir that can hold about 7.75 million litres of water.
Dan Glover, Vancouver Coastal Health’s drinking water officer, said the day marked the culmination of several years of study, planning and construction. “It’s been a long road,” he said. “As of today, the City of Powell River can say it supplies drinking water that’s treated to the highest international standard and not all cities in BC can say that, that’s for sure, at least not yet.”
Most users wouldn’t be able to see the difference, he said. “The water is still clear, it still tastes good. There isn’t any colour issue. We’re very fortunate here to have an excellent water source, Haslam Lake.”
The treatment upgrades provide an extra layer of protection that’s now required to protect consumers of surface water, Glover said. “I would encourage users of this drinking water, everyone in Powell River, to take advantage of this excellent resource, enjoy it, but keep in mind the need to conserve it and to ensure that we protect the source. Maintaining the quality of Haslam Lake will be the key to the ability to provide an on-going supply of excellent drinking water from now and into the future.”
Ryan Thoms, regional emergency program coordinator, and Tor Birtig, the city’s manager of operational services, also addressed attendees. Stan Westby, the city’s chief administrative officer, said that in the 12 years that he has been in the city, he is most proud of this project. “I hope you will join me in that pride because what we have done here is secured the safety of the drinking water for all citizens of Powell River.”
Speakers recognized city workers who maintain and monitor the drinking water system and members of the engineering department as well.
Jeremy Sagebiel, the city’s engineering technologist, was the project manager for the upgrade. He explained the UV treatment facility included a generator that would supply power when needed, for example in the case of a power outage or if there was inadequate power from BC Hydro. “This would kick in to continuously run all the automated systems and the treatment of the water,” he said. “It would control the UV disinfection as well as the chlorinators and all the other controls
in the building.”
The water intake runs into the building from a line that comes from Haslam Lake. UV disinfection takes place in three separate trains. “During peak hour demand, there will be two trains running simultaneously,” he said. “The third is for redundancy, in case one fails or is out of service for bulb replacement or cleaning of the bulbs.”
UV light rays inactivate bugs that can cause gastrointestinal illnesses, such as beaver fever. UV disinfection is mandated by the Canadian drinking water guidelines.
Once it goes through UV disinfection, the water is then injected with chlorine, then goes into the contact tank of the reservoir. “After that it goes into one of two cells for storage,” Sagebiel explained. “That’s where our capacity comes from.”
The system has the capacity to provide water for up to a population of 20,000, Sagebiel said.
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