Foothills County has made the final leap into a joint water pipeline project with the Town of Okotoks.
At its Sept. 9 council meeting, County council voted in favour of committing to $440,000 over the next two years to finance the engineering work to be done in order to make a pipeline from the Bow River to the region shovel-ready for grant applications this fall.
The Town of Okotoks voted to commit its portion, $1.041 million, during the joint council meeting between Okotoks and Foothills on Aug. 31.
On Sept. 2, County council agreed to approve the $34.23-million sub-regional water pipeline project in principle following Okotoks’ approval Aug. 31. The County had opted to postpone monetary decisions, agreeing to the memorandum of understanding only during the joint meeting, with the intent to revisit financial commitments after further council and intermunicipal committee meeting discussions.
Reeve Suzanne Oel said the decision to pay $440,000 for the County’s portion of the engineering work was a move to set the project in motion.
“We certainly will be working towards this win-win for our challenge area,” said Oel. “I’m in favour of this project due to the improved water security we’ll see for all of our communities and also for the opportunity to have this in the sub-region for the future of our working together on water and wastewater solutions.”
Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson said working together with the County to find a solution is welcomed news.
“Achieving a supplemental water source for Okotoks has been a priority during my entire tenure on Council. The Town has been working on this challenge for more than 20 years and today we are closer to achieving this than at any other time,” Roberton said in a prepared statement.
The plan to take raw water from the Bow River replaces the previous waterline, which would have had treated water flowing from the City of Calgary. However, due to changes implemented by Alberta Environment and Parks, moving water beyond its boundaries would have necessitated a transfer of water licence from the City of Calgary, essentially closing the door on water from the city.
Okotoks and Foothills County got to work on a Plan B solution, which would see the two municipalities cost-sharing a pipeline off the Bow according to the anticipated daily usage of each municipality. The plans incorporate water storage and treatment facilities for the County in its Central Districts A, B and C, and would move water through Okotoks’ existing upgraded water treatment plant.
Municipal manager Harry Riva Cambrin said the engineering work is set to begin immediately in order to prepare for grant applications by November so the municipalities can be ready to apply for the Province’s next round of funding.
He said the work would not likely be completed in 2020, but could take until at least June or July of 2021. With that in mind, it was possible to commit to the County’s full amount up-front.
“They’re not asking us to commit to paying for $440,000 in engineering this year, but as the project moves forward, which could be over a couple of years,” said Riva Cambrin.
The funds will be taken from reserves Foothills County previously set aside for its Aldersyde waterworks project and Coun. Jason Parker said it’s important to note those dollars will come back to the municipality over time.
“This is something that’s been in the works for a long time and this is something that the costs of the project would be cost-recovered by off-site levies and developers and so on moving forward, so this initial commitment of $440,000 is coming from reserves from a future project already in the works.”
Coun. Delilah Miller said she was in favour of getting underway with engineering work to have the water pipeline project shovel-ready because there is some concern in the air about whether grants will be available in the longer-term.
“It was alluded to that this grant funding, we don’t know how long it’s going to last for the shovel-ready with this current government,” said Miller. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see next year and just see if they continue to roll it out, but I’m not thinking they will.”
The next steps will involve the two municipalities working out project schedules, with information coming back to both councils via intermunicipal committee meetings.
“I think there’s a lot of work to be done on how this will pan out schedule-wise,” said Riva Cambrin.
Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca
