Additional waterline tie-ins for M.D. residents will have to wait until project is complete

M.D. residents wishing to tie-in to the regional waterline from Cold Lake to Bonnyville will have to wait until the project is complete.

At the previous M.D. council meeting, CAO Luc Mercier provided an update on the situation with landowners who don’t have an agreement already that want to tie-in to the waterline.

Mercier said that the project is too far along to make changes at this stage and this issue will come back to M.D. council later for more discussion.

“For these folks who are looking to tie in, be it to the small lines that are running between Ardmore and Fort Kent, or the major transmission line, those can happen at a later date,” said Reeve Greg Sawchuk.

“The question will be at what cost?”

The dollar figured mentioned during the council meeting was between $12,000-$15,000.

The scheduled completion of the regional waterline is 2020.

“That’s usually the part that deters a lot of folks from hooking in, either from the amount of water you can get or the sheer cost of doing an underground waterline to your property,” said Sawchuk.

There might be options to tie into the existing line that moves water from Ardmore to Fort Kent.

The $84 million project will run water through a 24-inch transmission line from the upgraded Cold Lake Water Treatment Plant along the Iron Horse Trail to a transfer station near 4 Wing Cold Lake, along Highway 28, before moving beside the trail again until it reaches the Bonnyville reservoir and pump house.

“These waterlines can be opened up at any time, and actually for some of the more major tie-ins as well where water may be fed elsewhere, it’s normal practice to close-in the waterline and open it to do the tie-ins,” said Sawchuk.