The brand-new Aspen Regional Water Treatment Plant was officially opened in Athabasca by town and county representatives last week, and is now pumping high-grade water across the region using state-of-the-art technology.
Athabasca Mayor Colleen Powell and County Reeve David Yurdiga, together with Athabasca-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson and Boyle Mayor Bob Clark, clicked the ‘Big Easy’ button on a computer that officially started pumping operations at the new plant, which will see water filtered and purified via a next-generation membrane micro-filtration system to flush out dangerous microbes.
“The most important part of this water plant is to provide the safest high-quality water to our communities that meets Alberta’s environmental requirements,” said Aspen Regional Water Services Commission chief administrative officer Brian Brost.
While the plant cost over $27 million, Powell said the project finished on budget with no cost overruns, and Johnson said such a result could only be achieved by people committed to “do a good job for the community.”
“This project received 82 per cent in provincial grant funding, which makes it possible for small communities to take part in Water for Life,” said Powell at the opening ceremony, referring to the regional water scheme supplying Athabasca County.
“For a village like Boyle, a new water treatment plant like this is just prohibitive without the province,” said Clark.
Yurdiga said that with new pumps and pipelines, communities like Colinton and Grassland could grow.
The new waterworks features a solar wall that draws in warm air on the south side to heat the whole building, while smart lighting automatically switches on and off as workers move around the plant in order to cut energy bills.
Project manager Gary Drachenberg said the new facility was a “poster child project,” for how a regional water plan could benefit small communities in Athabasca County and across northern Alberta.
Provincial funding for the Aspen Regional Water Treatment Plant was announced in 2005.
“Without outside money, most communities would be hard-pressed to take on a project of this magnitude,” said Drachenberg, who helped build the plant for Associated Engineering.
Water is pumped from the Athabasca River into a 74,000 cubic metre reservoir before being processed.
Brost said the plant was designed anticipating future expansion as Athabasca’s population grows, with space for an additional pre-treatment system tank that removes organic matter and solids such as sediment from water before it enters the micro-filtration system.
“It’s a significant investment in the quality of the water,” said Brost.
With the water now flowing, all that’s left to do is the final paint job and outdoor landscaping, finishing a job that started when bulldozers first broke earth in May, 2009.
“The only way this thing comes together is with a lot of partnership and teamwork,” said Graham Construction operations manager Michael Markowski, just after the water started flowing.
