Water plant’s troubles highlight report at Planning Committee

Officials with the City of North Battleford have had no end of troubles with the F.E. Holliday plant last month. 

The well-publicized issues in August — one of which resulted in a precautionary boil-water advisory for the city — were a focus of a report by City Director of Operations Stewart Schafer at Monday’s Planning Committee meeting at City Hall.

The incidents had also been discussed at the City’s monthly Water Committee meeting held earlier this month.

There had been two incidents at the plant during August. The one that prompted the drinking water advisory happened Aug. 11 when a process error occurred at F.E. Holliday Water Treatment Plant, and partially untreated water missed one of the treatment processes. Staff at the plant shut it down immediately and the precautionary drinking water advisory was issued.

Schafer reported an independent investigation showed that the City’s potable water was always safe and the partially treated water never left the water treatment plant.

“The water was safe at all times,” said Schafer.

“The UV system never did shut off. It was getting the ‘kill’ it needed. It was the staff that shut the plant down. Needless to say, we did follow the Water Security’s recommendations and brought the chlorine levels to very high level, and did all the testing they wanted.”

While the plant is able to treat the water from the river so it is safe to drink for the public, Schafer did note there is contamination such as cryptosporidium in the river itself.

“To put it bluntly, our water is safe, but if you’re going swimming in the river keep your mouth shut,” said Schafer.

The second incident happened Aug. 25 and was the more serious incident with respect to the plant’s ongoing operation.

A “water hammer” incident took place at the plant on that date. A water hammer is basically described as a back pressure of water at extreme force.

According to Schafer, it travelled down the main distribution line to the F.E. Holliday plant and hit its distribution pump, causing serious damage to the distribution header. One of the UV reactors was possibly damaged as well.

The amount of water the plant was able to treat and pump was impacted seriously, with plant output reduced to about 25 per cent of normal, which resulted in curtailing of watering of the parks.

Work has been done to deal with the problem and there have been some temporary repairs. Schafer reported the plant would be brought back up to 40 per cent as of this week. Final repairs are expected to be completed by April of next year, and Schafer expects the plant to be back to 100 per cent by then. 

In response to a question from Councilor Kelli Hawtin about fire levels, Schafer noted the 25 per cent output was indeed maintaining the city’s fire levels. In fact, “we are gaining,” he said, because the city was approaching the end of the year when less watering is being done.