John Thompson says Barrie has one of the best municipal water systems in the province, and the environmental services director hopes to keep it that way.
“And I’m not saying that to be egotistical,” he said. “We have a multitude of sources and that’s not something many municipalities are blessed with.”
Barrie has 12 production wells in addition to a surface water system.
“In other words, if any of those things went down, we could still continue to supply good water to people,” Thompson said. “Lots of places only have one source.”
The annual cost to run the city’s water system is approximately $25 million, including all operations, billing costs, engineering, replacement, asset management and paying down the debt.
Commissioned 2011, the surface water treatment plant on Big Bay Point Road cost $140 million to build, the largest city project ever at the time.
Source water for the treatment plant is drawn from Kempenfelt Bay, while water supplied from the groundwater system relies on wells drilled into a deep aquifer.
The city’s total annual production last year was 13,048 mega-litres (ML, or one million litres) with an average daily flow of 36 ML.
The city will be handling significant growth in the coming years and the pressures that come with it, particularly since acquiring approximately 5,700 acres of land from the Town of Innisfil almost a decade ago.
But Thompson says providing water to new homes and businesses won’t be an issue. Major trunk lines were extended last year into that area.
“With raw water capacity and treatment supply, we’re in very good shape for the long term in Barrie,” he said.
Once new south-end subdivisions start popping up, Thompson says the water will be there at the ready.
“There won’t be any delays because of water,” he said. “It’s just a matter of extending the pipes."
To handle additional growth in years to come, the city also has the ability to increase its capacity up to four-fold at the surface water treatment plan on the existing property on Royal Parkside Drive at Big Bay Point Road.
“It’s designed to be expanded very easily,” Thompson said.
One main focus for Thompson and the department is reducing any lost water in the system, and they are using some tech-savvy ways to do it.
“Nothing is perfect and sometimes there are leaks in the system,” he said. “Many municipalities have as much as 30 per cent of the water they produce being leaked and doesn’t get to the customers.”
Barrie, however, sits at about six per cent, he said.
“That is actually quite laudable, but it’s still not zero,” Thompson said. “If you’ve put money into both obtaining the raw water and then fully treating it and end up losing some, that’s not a good thing.”
The city is looking into pilot projects to bring that number as close to zero as possible, including the use of satellites to detect leaks.
“We’re cutting edge on that,” Thompson said. “A satellite actually scans the ground’s surface and if there’s any water with a chlorine residual, it can be found not only above but below the ground.
“It seems like quite a thing at first, but if you look at how it’s done to determine whether there’s water on other planets … well think about that same satellite just turning around and looking at the Earth,” he added.
One review done last May found some leaks that were not identified in any other way, Thompson said.
Council has also asked city staff to consider requests for water service from its municipal neighbours, which could include Innisfil, as well as Springwater, Essa and Oro-Medonte townships.
“Oro and Essa aren’t doing much, but the other two have had inquiries,” he said. “But, just to be careful, nobody has actually requested that we extend service. It’s being discussed with respect to whether it’s economically wise.
“We certainly have capacity … but the city has not received requests to extend services anywhere.”
