SUNDRE – The municipality’s hotly anticipated, multi-million-dollar high-tech upgrade to the wastewater treatment facility, which was originally expected to become operational with testing getting underway earlier this year, continues to suffer setbacks.
“It’s definitely delayed,” said Sundre mayor Richard Warnock.
“It seems to be one hold up after another that’s caused difficulties and delays for the supplier,” Warnock told the Albertan on Aug. 10 during a phone interview.
Now several years in the making, the project’s excavation got underway late in 2022 with an original schedule to begin testing by February 2023.
“Our new testing date, we’re supposed to get started with the testing by the end of September,” the mayor said.
Administration informed council this past April that the building’s shell that will house the new technology was essentially complete and would soon be arriving at the site for assembly.
“The walls are sitting there on trailers at the site,” the mayor said. “But they’re just waiting for the rest of the stuff so they can start putting it together.”
Administration has diligently been attempting to address the issue, but there are factors involved beyond the municipality’s ability to influence or control, he said.
“There is some supply chain issues with the material that needs to be installed when the walls go up,” he said.
“The manufacturer’s been having difficulty getting suppliers,” he said. “So, it is causing concern for us as well. But there’s no magic wand; there’s nothing we can do to change the process.”
The mayor was not immediately able to confirm the elusive materials whose short supply have so substantially hampered progress, but said it had to do with the process of assembling the structural shell’s pre-fabricated pieces.
The last thing the municipality wants at this point, is to further postpone the start of the testing period.
“We don’t want to; we’ve done it already once. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed,” he said. “We’re anxious; we want to get this proven. We’re just kind of at the mercy of a third party.”
