MOOSE JAW — The Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation could pay almost $1 million extra in tariff-related fees on its water treatment plant upgrade project but won’t know until the contractor submits a claim.
Ryan Johnson, president/CEO of the corporation, presented the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant’s (BPWTP) 2024 annual report during city council’s recent meeting and spoke briefly about what effect the tariffs may have on the renovation initiative.
With the organization’s operating budget, the plant’s raw chemicals come from the United States and are processed in Canada, while some replacement parts come from American manufacturers, so the tariffs could affect those materials, Johnson said.
Therefore, the corporation believes the overall tariff effect could be $500,000 to $1 million, he continued.
Meanwhile, with the $325-million capital project, the corporation understands that the contractor has submitted a notice that it reserves the right to claim costs for tariffs, even though it purchased most materials before the United States imposed those penalties, Johnson said.
“Most of the project is done … . We’re 80 per cent done. Yeah, it’s going to be another year, but most of that work is just on phase 2 of the administration building,” he remarked. “Most of the other components are (either) already on site or installed, it’s just commissioning right now.
“So there could be some risk in there, but because (the contractor) have already pre-purchased the material and it’s already on site, we think it’s minimal,” Johnson added. “But, until we see a claim, we don’t know.”
Water consumption
The data showed that the BPWTP sold 5,228.1 megalitres (ML) of water to Moose Jaw in 2024, which was two percentage points above the forecasted amount of 5,125 ML. In comparison, in 2023, those numbers were, respectively, 5,278.6 ML and 5,120 ML. Therefore, the amount of water the corporation sold to The Friendly City decreased year-over-year by 0.95 per cent.
Coun. Chris Warren questioned whether the corporation would still increase water consumption rates by 2026 despite reduced usage and whether the corporation would consider a tiered pay structure since the City of Regina consumed 85 per cent of the WTP’s water.
The BPWTP still plans to increase the cost per megalitre — even though Moose Jaw and Regina used less water during the past two years — because the organization must still collect the revenue it requires, Johnson said. Yet, homeowners will pay less on consumption costs if they conserve water.
Also, the corporation will not implement a tiered pay structure because that contravenes the agreement Regina and Moose Jaw signed, where both agreed to pay the same fee per megalitre regardless of how much each consumed, Johnson added. So, Regina pays more because it consumes more.
Excess fluoride
Johnson also addressed the issue of excess fluoride in the system in December, where 1.76 milligrams per litre — the maximum acceptable concentration is 1.5 mg/L — of the chemical flowed through the Moose Jaw transmission line for roughly 12 minutes.
The incident occurred because contractors were installing new pump control systems and the normal safeguards were delayed from kicking in by four minutes, while it usually takes eight minutes between cycles, he said. The excess fluoride happened after contractors restored a pump to operation following two previous start failures.
Twelve minutes later, WTP staff recognized the problem and shut down the fluoride system — even though the chemical had left the plant — and contacted the city and Water Security Agency, Johnson continued.
What’s positive about this situation, he noted, is that the chemical was likely diluted because the pipeline is 20 kilometres long, so there was no possibility of anyone receiving fluoride concentrations higher than 1.5 mg/L.
Johnson added that the plant has never had that situation occur before, while he did not consider it an “immediate health concern.”
Carbon tax
Asked about Ottawa removing the carbon tax, Johnson said the corporation has revised its expenses for natural gas and power and could save $232,000 on its $17 million operating budget. However, it will need to clarify that since the federal government said it was removing the carbon tax from residential consumers but planned to keep it in place for industrial and commercial emitters.
