Council receives status update on Well No. 7 project

November 12, 2014 · 0 Comments

Council received a status update on the Well No. 7 project from engineer Jamie Witherspoon of the WSP Group at the November 10th Council meeting. Witherspoon reported that the drill was working up in Melancthon for the back-up well with a planned completion date for drilling at the end of November.
Witherspoon told Council that the Watermain design had been delayed due to Ministry of Transportation permitting, but that it was 95% complete and that tender was proposed for the end of November with hopes for construction to start early next year. The $2,150,000 price tag for the Watermain remains unchanged at this time and the engineer estimated there would be a review of final drawings with the Town in the next few weeks.
Regarding Environmental Assessment (EA) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) commitments Witherspoon said those would mainly concern construction related items and five year groundwater and surface water monitoring around the Well. Work for those items was under way with Stephen Burnett & Associates engineering.
The report stated that conceptual designs were also underway for Well No. 5/6 upgrades and would be completed by the end of the year. Designs for the No.7 Wellhouse were now fifty percent completed and construction would begin in the spring of 2015.
Blending systems for Well 1 and 3, needed to achieve compliance with future legislation upgrading the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water, were estimated to cost $250,000. The Mayor and Town CAO John Telfer wanted residents to be assured that at this time the Town of Shelburne is meeting current legislation standards for arsenic, a naturally occurring element in drinking water. “Council must take action now to meet new, increased standards for arsenic levels in pending legislation,” said Telfer.
The required blending systems for Well 1 and 3 were estimated to cost $250,000; back-up generators for Well 1 and 3 were estimated at $450,000; and SCADA (a supervisory control and data-acquisition system to allow the Town to view the status of their entire water system) was estimated at $250,000. All are needed to meet the long term water requirements of Shelburne. Treasurer Carol Sweeney reported that all three components were “currently unfunded.”
The WSP report stated that wastewater capacity expansion for Shelburne’s growing population is currently under study. Field work was completed and data is continuing to be collected. There is a plan to meet with the Ministry of the Environment in 2015 and Witherspoon stated that a Class Environmental Assessment (EA) would commence after that meeting.
When Council asked how long Witherspoon estimated the EA might take, he replied, “Approximately two years.” The engineer reported that there was good news in the environmental studies completed so far with “positive results” for thriving species in the rivers, including the Besley and the Boyne, where Shelburne’s processed and cleaned waste waters are currently discharged.
A motion passed to receive the report and instruct the engineer to continue on Well work with the CAO. John Telfer reminded Council that the project was now “getting into serious money” and that he wanted them “to be clear and comfortable” with the direction the project was going.

By Marni Walsh