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Floccing tanks at South Pender Water Treatment Plant near Madeira park. The plant’s completion has resulted in clean water flowing out of “Area A”
taps since the end of June, thanks to the foresight of regional planners, technical expertise, and federal funding for the project. Photo Apryl Veld
If you’re living in South Pender Harbour, you may already know the water supply is changing, for the better. Pender Harbour communities have had a long history of poor water quality that residents and visitors have had to cope with.
“This time of year, visitors and residents are usually living with boil water notices,” says regional utilities manager, Dave Crosby.
But boil notices are going to be a thing of the past, with the new water treatment plant at McNeill Lake.
“It’s a pretty exciting success story,” Crosby notes, “The Regional District is proudly celebrating this (new) operation.”
The efforts of the Sunshine Coast Regional District have been well timed with grants that became available out of the Building Canada Fund that was established under the federal plan to fund projects from 2007 to 2014.
South Pender Water Treatment Plant’s completion has resulted in clean water flowing out of Area A taps since the end of June, thanks to a vision for better services from former directors, several years of planning, and winning a $4.06 million grant from the Federal government toward the $5.5 million cost. Throughout July, the technicians said they have been tweaking things and trying to get the water works running at optimal levels for quality and safety.
Residents in South Pender Harbour will continue to get their drinking water from McNeill Lake, the plant’s senior technician confirms, only now it will be filtered and cleaned in specialized stages that are easy to monitor and adjust.
The District notes the water is already looking and tasting better.
“We’re fine tuning things … it’s really big that we’ve never had to shut the plant down,” on site Environmental Operator, Kevin Johnson observed.
One of only a handful of Level 4 water techs in the province, Johnson along with his team work with the latest technology to assure water quality standards meet and exceed Health Canada’s Drinking Water Guidelines. the technicians can see and adjust all the variables like sediments, ph levels and flow in real time.
The water that comes to the plant is improved through the use of “floccing” Dissolve, Air, Float (DAF) process which infuses particles in the water with bubbles to causes the impurities to float in a foam on the tank surface. Sets of brushes skim off the foam, and cleaner water flows through UV reactors where powerful light kills chlorine-resistant bacteria such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium.
The water is clean enough that they need to rely less on disinfecting solutions.
“We’re using half the chlorine that we used to,” Johnson emphasized.
The pumps, systems and tanks all have back ups so they can take some pieces of the system offline to clean or service them, and still keep the waterworks running or expand them.
“If we (Area A) have more population we can accommodate that,” Johnson informed.
Water meters are part of the system and also a condition of the grant they received from the federal government. The District notes with metering they can fix leaks in the system quickly, and help offset costs. SCRD planners are optimistic that South Pender residents can look forward to a steady supply of water that is reliably safe and good tasting for the foreseeable future.
Apryl Veld
