THUNDER BAY – More than a dozen people gathered at Oliver Road Community Centre on Thursday evening to hear more about the city’s 20-year road map for its water treatment system.
Joshua Daniels, a water and wastewater engineer with the city, said the meeting was to gain public input to inform the environmental division’s master plan.
He said the goal of updating the plan is to guide the city’s infrastructure spending and ensure the distribution system can keep up with demand for reliable drinking water as the city grows over the next five to 20 years.
Daniels told Newswatch the plan’s strength is not only the technical analysis by Stantec Consulting Ltd., who are reviewing the water systems’ existing levels of service, but the non-technical factors as well as the public input that feeds into the plan.
He said the master plan aims to meet and exceed the level of service that the community expects. It also supports the city’s development goals in its Smart Growth Action Plan.
Daniels says the city’s Bare Point Water Treatment Plant is running fairly well and could accommodate future growth when needed.
“Our system is relatively large in that we have a number of different distribution system pressure zones and pumping stations and reservoirs throughout the city. So, it provides, right now, a very good base to support our existing community needs, a good base for the short and long term, and then with the required infrastructure alternatives that are being considered, that this input is feeding into to move forward, we will be in a good position to support that,” he said.
Daniels says they are still refining what upgrades are needed to the water distribution system, but they will know more confidently once the study is complete.
“They could range from increased treatment capacity, increased distribution system pumping storage capacity, could be more reliability. In terms of different processes at the plant or distribution systems, just to ensure that should components of the system go out of service, we are still able to meet the needs through other pipelines or other avenues,” he said.
After speaking with a couple of attendees, Daniels says the feedback he has heard so far was residents want to know if the city can provide a constant level of service they are accustomed to.
When asked why engaging with the public is important to the study, Daniels said as a service provider, they only see one side of the system, such as the problems, opportunities, constraints, and some solutions as well.
“The residents, people using the service every day, have different perspectives, having different objectives and different goals. I think that stuff is really critical, and it really provides that kind of missing piece of the puzzle that you don’t usually see as the utility providing the service,” he said.
Daniels said the goal is to have the final draft of the master plan completed by the end of the year.
It will then be presented to the next term of city council for approval.
