July 6, 2011
Town gets money for
water loop
by Vance Gutzman
With the money flowing in, so too should the water.
Deep River council received some very good news last week when it was
announced the town was successful in its funding application for
$404,000 under the third phase of the province's Ontario Small
Waterworks Assistance Program (OSWAP).
The town, which applied for the funding earlier this year, will use the
money to install a watermain loop along Banting and McElligott Drives
in the west end of the municipality.
As previously reported in the NRT, the town has been discharging
drinking water from a dead end watermain on Banting Drive, near the
hospital.
While that has resulted in a significant amount of loss from the town's
water system, and has also led to problems with how to dispose the
water that's being flushed onto the ground, the discharging has also
been necessary to meet chlorine levels mandated by the Ministry of
Environment (MOE).
Maintaining the proper chlorine residuals is hampered by the fact the
watermain comes to a dead end, and the water inside can stagnate to the
point where the chlorine residuals fall below the MOE specs.
When the town applied for the funding in February it did so after
hearing from engineering firm Jp2g that the best way to alleviate the
situation would be to install a watermain loop that would be routed
southerly along Banting and then westerly along McElligott, where it
would connect to the existing water distribution system at the
intersection of Golf Course Road and Glendale Avenue.
Construction of the 250 mm diameter watermain loop would increase the
water flow rate at the hospital (the most westerly point of the
existing line) from 53 litres per second to 74.1 litres per second -
decreasing stagnation and increasing chlorine residuals along the
at the same time.
Deep River council welcomed the news that its funding application was
successful with open arms last week.
"I think this is a very significant achievement," Mayor David Thompson
said.
Not only will the watermain loop increase water quality in the town's
west end, the mayor said, it should increase development opportunities
there as well, because there is currently no watermain running
along that stretch of McElligott Drive.
"It will provide water service down McElligott Drive, which opens up
development opportunities," Thompson said.
"It solves a problem and creates an opportunity."
The town still has to sign a formal agreement with the province for the
funding, which will amount to two-thirds of the total cost ($605,970)
of the watermain loop project.
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