New water system for west Saint John could be operational in weeks

Saint John's deputy mayor says the new drinking water system for the city's west side could be online by early September.

"They've got all the equipment in place, all the pipes and storage tanks and everything," said McAlary. "They're all ready to go.

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"We're very hopeful this will take place the early part of September."

The west side's water system will be completely separate from a much larger operation designed to serve the city's north, east and south regions that isprojected to come on line in late 2018.

'Wonderful' water

"They're going to have absolutely wonderful drinking water on the west side of the city," McAlarysaid. "They'll actually have the best water because it's coming from wells."

McAlary and other councillors were given a tour of the west Saint John operation Thursday.

On Friday, crews could be seen paving the access road for a new pumping station adjacent to the Westgate subdivision.

The water from three nearby wells will be piped to a treatment plant at Spruce Lake.

From there, treated water will be distributed to all residential customers west of Reversing Falls.

June was original target

The original project plan called for the system in that part of the system to be completed by the end of June.

But at their Aug. 8 meeting, city councillors quietly amended the contract to make a new completion date Nov. 15.

The item was added to the agenda immediately prior to the meeting.No explanation or documentation was included in the public agenda package.

In a statement, city spokesperson Lisa Caissie said the change of date"is for administrative reasons only and will not impact the commissioning of the well field."

"The conversion for the well water to begin flowing through the distribution system will take place later this summer."

Change just a 'formality'

McAlary said the delay was a formality"on paper."

They felt they could get the project on the west side done a bit sooner," she said. "Then they found out no, it couldn't happen by that date so we had to change the contract."

The two new water treatment systems are being built and operated as a public-private partnership.

The total cost is projected to be $216million.

The system serving the east, north and south areas of the city is scheduled to be completed by the end of November 2018.