Mandatory new water-treatment requirements from Island Health could cost the City of Duncan up to $8 million, and the costs could be even higher.
At the council meeting on June 9, director of public works and engineering Brian Murphy informed council that the city’s water-operating permit is up for renewal by Island Health and the heath authority is using the opportunity to formalize what the water system will require for the future, including that the city install permanent water-disinfection facilities in the system.
“The first and most important note is that our water system is safe currently and our source of water is safe and is regularly monitored and meets all the requirements,” Murphy said.
“The future water-treatment requirements that are being brought on are normal and standard, and it’s just Duncan’s time for these requirements to be formalized.”
Murphy said that the four wells that service Duncan’s water needs have been designated as “at risk", but noted that this is a normal designation and nothing to worry about.
“‘At risk’ does not mean that there’s anything wrong with the wells as they stand, or with the water that comes from those wells,” he said. “It just means that there is potential for something to show up at some point. This is normal and is a rating that you would find on almost every other source of water supply, and it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong. We monitor and measure our water regularly.”
Murphy said the new regulations require that the city add ultraviolet disinfection of its water, on top of the chlorine treatments that the city is already administering.
But he said the regulations will require chlorine to be administered in a more structured way than it is currently, so a new facility will have to be constructed for chlorine treatments, as well as UV treatments.
“Our water is very high quality and we are hopeful that we will be able to get an exemption for filtration, which means we won’t have to filter the water before it goes into the UV and chlorine treatments,” Murphy said.
“We have to collect data, which we’re already collecting, and apply (to Island Health) for that. It only matters in the sense that it adds to costs. In the meantime, the requirements are for us to build permanent facilities that will offer chlorine and UV treatments.”
Murphy said the cost to build the new facilities has been estimated at between $6 million and $8 million, and it will be higher if the city is required to build a filtration system.
“We’re negotiating with Island Health and we’re hoping that we’ll have until 2027 at least to start construction, and we’re hoping to even add on another year before we have to start,” he said.
“The option that is the most economical, which is still very costly, appears to be to build a centralized treatment plant in Rotary Park. This is an enormous undertaking and it would require borrowing. But we still have time on our side, so we will seek out grant opportunities where we can.”
