STEPHEN UHLER

stephen.uhler@sunmedia.ca

The city of Pembroke is getting a critical component of its water system repaired.

Earlier this month, the finance and administration committee approved the awarding of a $79,406 tender, plus HST, to the Belmont Group Ltd. to install equipment needed to make the sedimentation tank sludge removal system work again. A contingency allowance of $10,000 was also set up to cover any additional expenses.

Doug Sitland, operations manager, said while operators have been successful in nursing the system along by scavenging replacement parts, with summer approaching, it is important to get this work done before the demand on the system increases.

The equipment being installed, a Leopold (Xylem) Clari-Trae 2 (CT2) Sedimentation Tank Sludge Removal System, will replace the water plant's track vacuum system, used to clean the sediment from the sedimentation tanks. These in turn are used as part of the filtration process, allowing sediment to settle out.

Mr. Sitland said the system had been experiencing various breakdowns which have required operators to manually clean the sedimentation tanks, a task which requires one tank to be decommissioned and cleaned, requiring about one week of time and wasting thousands of gallons of water.

Because of this, the vacuum system had been slated to be replaced starting in the 2012 budget, but a power outage on Oct. 26, 2011 damaged the system's electrical components and so pushed the project forward.

A new type of system was required, as the track vacuum one is no longer manufactured, and after a careful examination of differing technologies, the Xylem was selected.

The entire project, including the cost of the new system and the cost to install it, is $226,075.

Mr. Sitland said this does exceed the pre-approved budget of $170,000, but since this will be completed May 4, 2012, it can be incorporated into the stand-alone water budget before it is approved in June.

Stephen Uhler is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist