Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant
After more than a few years of planning and studies, a $295 million, a three-year renewal of the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant in southcentral Saskatchewan is now underway. Construction by the joint venture team of Graham and Aecon, working under a progressive design-build lump sum contract, started in early June and is expected to take until 2025 to complete. The construction phase was preceded by two years of pre-construction and engineering design.
Aecon Group Inc. (TSX: ARE) announced today that Graham-Aecon Joint Venture, a 50/50 consortium between Aecon and Graham Construction, has been awarded a $273 million design-build contract by the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation (BPWTC) for the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant Renewal Project near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Aecon's share of the contract will be added to its Construction segment backlog in the second quarter of 2022.
The independent board of directors of the plant, owned by the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw, in collaboration with plant president and CEO Ryan Johnson, has approved the purchase of a custom-designed $250,000 high-tech buoy that’s been nicknamed Superbuoy. It comes equipped with research-grade weather and atmospheric monitors, and an array of winter-hardy water quality sensors for year-round use.
A planned major upgrade for south Saskatchewan’s Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant marks the first time in Canada that a progressive design-build format will be used in the construction of such a facility. “This format is more commonly used in the United States,” Buffalo Pound president and CEO Ryan Johnson points out. “Design-build presents inherent risks in terms of cost. Progressive design-build gives us more control over the outcome.”
Cities can lower the amount of lead dissolving into residents’ water either by making their water less acidic by adjusting pH levels or adding orthophosphate to the water, which creates a protective film inside plumbing reducing the amount of lead that leaches into the water. A pilot program to begin sometime this year will look at using orthophosphate in both Regina and Moose Jaw as a way to mitigate risks of lead service connections (LSCs) present in both cities. “I am assuming there is benefit, but we have to confirm that there is,” said Ryan Johnson, president and CEO of the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant in an interview Thursday.
With some of the highest municipal water rates in Canada, a University of Regina (U of R) researcher says the city should start thinking about affordability programs for low-income families. “The international benchmarks tell us we should be in trouble now, because people who are living at the Statistics Canada low-income cut off are already paying more than the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) says they should be paying,” Jim Warren said in an interview Thursday.
