Review of a report by Associated Engineering entitled
Regional Water
Supply System Feasibility Report
This
report was commissioned by the Town of Athabasca, the County of Athabasca and
the Village of Boyle. The purpose of the
report was to determine if these municipalities should continue on with their
own water supply systems or whether they would be better off to band together
and form a regional water supply system to coordinate their water supply
needs. The report recommends that these
municipalities band together and have a regional water supply system rather
than separate systems for each of these municipalities. The report contemplates that this regional
water supply system would supply Athabasca, Colinton, Boyle & Grassland.
The
Skeleton Lake Stewardship Association (SLSA) has recently reviewed this report
and we are concerned with its recommendations.
The concern we have with this report stems from the lack of
investigation into whether Skeleton Lake can sustain Boyle’s water diversion.
While there are numerous other bodies of water and rivers within the County,
none of them appear to have been considered – we assume because they are
currently not being used as sources for potable water. The report examines
population projections, supply needs for those populations, discusses water
quality needs and resulting water treatment results, but does not
investigate whether the source of Boyle’s existing water supply is sustainable. In section 3, where the existing system is
assessed with respect to supply, the report states that the Athabasca River is a reliable water source but there is no
analysis of whether Skeleton Lake has the quantity of water necessary to
sustain the supply to Boyle.
The
report considers a number of options and ultimately recommends that the best
option is to take water from the Athabasca River to supply Athabasca, Colinton,
Boyle and Grassland. So far so
good. The SLSA supports that
recommendation. Unfortunately, the plan
also recommends staging of this option so that the Athabasca/Colinton upgrade
is done first, followed by stage two which is a pipeline from Boyle to
Grassland and ultimately followed by stage 3 which is the connection from
Colinton (of the Athabasca River water supply) to Boyle. Stage
3 is to be commenced once the Boyle water treatment plant is at the end of its
lifespan. The problem with this is that
the Boyle plant is predicted to have a 25 year useful lifespan. The
implicit conclusion therefore is that Skeleton Lake will supply both Boyle and
Grassland for the next 25 years!
In the
recommendations, the discussion of staging leaves the connection of the
Athabasca River supply through Colinton to Boyle as the final stage in order to
“take advantage of the existing lifespan of the Boyle Water Treatment Plant. Upon the reduction of service and/or quality
of the water source at Boyle, the third stage can be undertaken.” Obviously this means that not only will Boyle
continue to draw water from Skeleton Lake for their own uses, but they will
also be supplying the Town of Grassland which has almost the same high level of
water consumption as Boyle, thereby significantly increasing the water Boyle
will take out of Skeleton Lake for the next 25 years!
The
report even recommends that Boyle expand their water treatment plant in the
year 2013 to increase its capacity yet nowhere is there any analysis of whether
Skeleton Lake can support such an expansion.
At the
end of the report are three memos outlining what happened at meetings between
Associated Engineering and the Steering Committee on April 8, 2003, April 29,
2003 and June 5, 2003. We would like to
mention some relevant contents of each of those memos as they hint at some
discussions that occurred that are important.
April 8,
2003 Memo – Approximately one-quarter of this memo is spent addressing concerns
about the high water consumption in Grassland and Boyle – remember those are
the two villages that will be using Skeleton Lake water. The most revealing quote is: “the majority of the workshop was spent
addressing Associated Engineering’s concerns about the high water consumption
in Grassland (540 lpcd) and Boyle (667 lpcd).”
April
29, 2003 Memo –This memo also dealt with concerns about Boyle's excessive water
consumption including the following:
“the workshop began with a brief review of the Water Needs/Design
Workshop and addressed some <of> the concerns of the Steering Committee,
specifically the large water consumption at Boyle.” “Large traffic flow and car/truck washes were
also believed to be a root cause of Boyle’s high water consumption. To account for the additional 144 lpcd, 5,760
toilet flushes or 1,000 car washes would be required every day. These effects <i.e. traffic flow and
car/truck washes causing high water consumption> have now been
discounted.” (emphasis added).
June 5,
2003 – This memo contains the following interesting comments: “Associated Engineering again addressed the
high water consumption of Boyle.” “The Steering Committee felt there is no
quantity issue with Skeleton Lake as the amount Boyle draws out of the lake is
less than evaporation. Associated
Engineering suggested that if there is a series of dry years, the quantity
and quality of water from Skeleton Lake could be compromised.” (emphasis added).
CONCLUSION
The report does not examine whether
Skeleton Lake is a sustainable source of water for Boyle and Grassland
currently or into the future. The
Skeleton Lake Stewardship Association views that as a glaring deficiency in
this report and questions the value of a report based on an unproven
premise. We believe that a scientific
examination of the sustainability of Skeleton Lake as a water source is
critical to the viability of the feasibility study.
The SLSA has been conducting investigations
into the sustainability of Skeleton Lake as a source of water for Boyle and has
come to the conclusion that Skeleton Lake can not support the current
diversion of water let alone an increase.
We have come to this conclusion after studying the historical records of
precipitation, looking at the evaporation levels of the lake and comparing the
lake levels of Skeleton Lake since 1965 to the levels of the neighbouring lakes
since then as well as investigating all of the factors impacting Skeleton Lake
including development, ground water, outflow levels and Boyle’s water
diversion. It appears none of these
factors were even considered in this report.
We have conducted mathematical projections
of the lake level based on different models and have found that the current
Boyle diversion cannot be sustained under any of our models. We have come to the conclusion that if the
current diversion continues for another 6 to 12 years Skeleton Lake will be
irreparably harmed and will not be able to recover.
