The Town of Penhold will begin construction on a new $3-million water reservoir this year to address ongoing water issues, including water shortages.
The multi-million dollar project, which could be as high as $3.5 million, will be funded through the Build Canada Fund – a joint initiative between municipalities, provinces and the federal government, and is expected to be complete by late 2017 or early 2018.
“We're in the middle of acquiring the land and in the early design process,” said Penhold mayor Dennis Cooper. “We hope to start construction either this fall or winter.”
The new reservoir was a topic of discussion at the council meeting on June 13 as a result of a recent five-day water ban from June 8 to 12, and concerns over the town's high water consumption by residents during that time period. This is the third consecutive year that Penhold has seen a full water ban in place. The first ban was in 2014 following the Wild Rose Manor fire, and last year during the construction-upgrading phase of the Penhold lift station.
The mayor spoke with the public works department recently and discussed what can be done to help alleviate the ongoing water issues, including conservation measures and informing the public to ensure they are aware when there is a shortage and water bans in place.
Although the town did inform its residents of the water ban, Cooper noted, not everyone heard that message.
“We had some nights between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. where people were going through over 100 cubes of water an hour,” he said. “Our average daily (water) burn is normally 650 cubes a day. We were at that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (prior to the water ban) plus that 400 (extra) cubes.
“The water level in our reservoir was down and that's why we had the water ban, to let it recover,” he added. “We had to stop outside watering for five days.” The mayor noted he did see some residents watering lawns and washing cars during the ban. “We have to be water wise,” he said.
Cooper said it's important for residents to think water conservation in times of a water ban. “We can't produce water fast enough to keep up with that type of water burn,” he said.
The current reservoir holds about 1,800 cubes of water, while the new one is expected to hold between 2,000 and 3,000 cubes of water.
The additional reservoir will be located on the opposite side of town and will increase water capacity for Penhold residents.
“We hopefully shouldn't have any more water shortages,” said Cooper. “Secondly, we hope to get a new well (with) less iron in it so we don't have any more reports of people having iron coming out in their water.
“We hope to solve both of those problems with this one project,” he added.
During the next several months, until the new reservoir is built, Cooper stressed it is important for all residents to consider water conservation as a priority.
“It's not an unlimited resource and we have to be aware of that,” said Cooper. “Let's talk water and let's talk about how we can conserve.”
For more information visit www.townofpenhold.ca
Mayor Dennis Cooper
"The water level in our reservoir was down and that's why we had the water ban, to let it recover. We had to stop outside watering for five days."
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