Kirkland Lake’s water distribution system challenges could result in the town flushing millions of dollars down the drain.
At a regular council meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 9), director of public works Stephane Fortin talked about the growing concerns regarding the town’s water pipes and water pressure.
The cost to fix the water pressure and volume issues is $10-15 million, Fortin noted in his report.
“There are basically three things that we need from a water distribution system. It needs to provide us with clean water, it needs to be under pressure, and we need enough volume to fight fires. There was a time where our water distribution system was able to handle it all. That was long ago,” Fortin said.
“Reality is is that 100 years has passed and the majority of those pipes are still in the ground. The inside of the old pipes are now heavily encrusted, which simply means that the inside diameter of the pipes are significantly reduced and the inside surface of the pipes are no longer smooth. So basically, we once had large smooth pipes to carry the water, now we have rough, narrowed pipes, which cannot carry the same volume of water that it once could.”
Because of the damage that’s occurred to the pipes over the years, Fortin also noted that about 50 per cent of the treated water is being lost due to unknown breaks.
If Kirkland Lake wants the ability to grow, there will be a need to connect to their existing infrastructure, Fortin said.
“Within the past few years, the town has been in the unfortunate situation of having to deny requests to connect to our town's water system because we're unable to give them what they need. We can't change water pipes fast enough to make any significant dent to solving this issue and it's way too expensive. Kirkland Lake has to adapt to the existing state of its system,” he said.
The municipality's water is supplied by Gull Lake and one water treatment plant. To help with the water supply and further control of pressure, there is one water tower in Chaput Hughes.
“We're spread out over quite a large area. Increasing pressure and volume from the plant is usually a possibility, but it's not an option for us because while we would increase pressure near the plant to correct the low-pressure area, which is further away from the plant, variations and pressure to our weak system will simply cause us a lot of breaks,” Fortin said.
Kirkland Lake is divided into four regions: Central Kirkland, Federal Area, Chaput Hughes and Swastika. He said each of the four regions would benefit from having its own water tower.
“This would increase pressure and volume for each region and would provide each region with the ability to grow freely,” he said.
“This will be an expensive undertaking as each step will cost multiple millions of dollars. Selecting the first region of town to upgrade will be important as this will open the doors for growth. All this work needs to be done in parallel with replacing our existing infrastructure on a continual basis.”
Just before Christmas, the province introduced a new funding program called the Water Enabling Plan, said CAO Lloyd Crocker.
City staff is researching the fund, with more information expected soon.
Coun. Rick Owen said he tries to be a realist.
“There's no way we're putting in four water towers. I'm sorry. No matter how much government funding we're getting, we're not going to get enough,” he said.
Because of decades of neglect, he said the town is in a terrible situation.
“I mean, we have to provide clean, safe water and pressures that the fire department requires. We don't have a choice. But where we're going to get the money is beyond me,” he said.
“But this problem didn't happen overnight, so it's not going to be resolved overnight. This council is not going to resolve all the water issues. It's not possible.”
Coun. Pat Kiely is disappointed by the timing of Fortin’s report.
“We just did our strategic plan and I believe this issue should have been included in our planning process. We're looking at millions and millions of dollars here that if we don't get funding from the province, that we have to tack on to the taxpayer,” he said.
Similarly, Coun. Casey Owens said he feels like the strategic plan is now “utterly useless.”
“I truly feel it was a total waste of time,” he said.
Mayor Stacy Wight said she said this issue should serve as a wake-up call to council.
“The Town of Kirkland Lake now needs to make a hard choice … Often politicians like to focus on the shiny things that get votes, this is not a shiny thing, this is a necessary thing. We want to make sure that our community is not only sustainable for current voting population, but for generations to come,” she said.
“Every member at this table was elected to make decisions on behalf of our community, our neighbours, our friends and our families. I suggest we prepare ourselves to make very difficult and what will likely be very unpopular decisions in the near future.”
