SLSA Newsletter Update - October 8, 2008

Dear SLSA Member

We wish to pass on some good news respecting the timing of Boyle coming off of Skeleton Lake.

We have been speaking to the consultant who was retained by the Aspen Regional Water Services Commission who was hired to oversee the Colinton to Boyle waterline. The consultants name is John Van Doesburg and he has consulted on many similar pipeline projects in Alberta. We have spoken to John a couple of times in the past few weeks. He has been very open and forthright. He knew all about SLSA and in fact said that he felt the money from government for this project was more forthcoming than usual and he thought that was due to SLSA's efforts.

Here is the status of the project.

The pipeline land acquisition has taken longer than planned. As a result of the land acquisition taking longer than planned the pipeline likely won't be complete until June 2009. The pipeline will likely tender very soon (October 15) and they will likely close by Nov.1 .

The design of the new Athabasca Water Treatment Plant was switched to a higher capacity plant so it could serve a larger group of potential water users in the future. That change has slowed down the completion date of the Water Treatment Plant but they are still hopeful that it could be completed by fall 2009 however it is more likely that it will take until spring of 2010. HOWEVER the good news is that the existing Water Treatment Plant has enough excess capacity to handle all of Boyle's requirements and therefore as soon as the pipeline is complete Boyle can switch 100% to the Athabasca supply meaning that Boyle will be off of the lake by May or June 2009! Previously we had been told that Boyle would only draw a portion of their water from the old water treatment plant and they wouldn't be completely off of Skeleton Lake until the new water treatment plant was operating.

This means that the existing Athabasca water treatment plant has enough water to supply all of Boyle's needs so that as soon as the pipeline is complete in May or June of 2009 Boyle will switch to receiving 100% of their water from Athabasca and not take any more water from Skeleton Lake. This is about a year sooner than we had previously been told. The only caveat the consultant put on this information was that the existing Athabasca Water Treatment Plant could only supply water to Boyle at this pace for a year or so. Also, if there was a severe drought then they may not be able to supply 100% of Boyle's needs. However, under current circumstances, they could supply 100% of Boyle's needs until the new water treatment plant is built.

Your SLSA Board of Directors