Council approves water treatment plant upgrades

By Rob Vogt
Claresholm town council has approved upgrades to the water treatment plant.
At its May 23 meeting, council agreed to proceed with the Water Treatment Plant Numatics G3 Upgrade in 2023 for a maximum amount of $140,146.56 funded by an Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership Grant of $64,317 and the remainder funded by the town’s water and sewer utility capital reserve.
A report from administration explained the Microfiltration system at the water treatment plant is controlled by a numatic solenoid system.
The current system is Numatics G2-series electronics. The existing G2 series solenoids have been deemed obsolete by the manufacturer and are no longer supported, therefore maintenance and repairs are difficult and, depending on the issue, may become unrepairable.
There is a total of six solenoid manifolds. Therefore, the system needs to be upgraded to a Numatics G3-series system.
Administration applied for Alberta Municipal Water/Waste Water funding in the fall of 2021 and was unsuccessful. The application was updated and re-submitted in the fall of 2022.
The town received notification this year it was successful in receiving funding for this project. The project is included in the town’s five-year capital plan for 2025 as, essentially, the latest the town can afford to delay this project, hoping to received funding before that time.
This project was originally quoted in the fall of 2021 at a cost of $85,143. When updating the application to re-submit it in the fall of 2022, the town received an updated quote for the project, which jumped significantly to $125,398, a 47 per cent increase in price. Furthermore, the town received an updated quote on May 18, with an updated cost of $140,146.56 or an approximately 12 per cent increase.
The funding the town was awarded, through the Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership, was 51.29 per cent of the project cost to a maximum of $64,316.77.
This calculates to a maximum project cost of $125,398 that will receive grant funding.
Anything over this is 100 per cent funded by the town. As such, any further inflation in costs will be borne completely by the town, so even a further 12 per cent increase in costs, at a total project cost of $140,146.56, will result in a 24 per cent increase in the cost to the town.
Per the capital plan, the matching portion, or non-grant funded portion, of the project is being funded from the water and sewer utility capital reserve.
Administration recommended proceeding with the project in 2023 to limit further cost increases for the project, as any inflationary increases in costs are magnified in the cost increases to the town, in the portion not grant funded.
Council agreed with that recommendation and authorized the upgrades proceed.