Making sure the water supply keeps flowing to Regina

In the wake of the Calgary water main break that left over one million people under water restrictions, a nagging fear for other municipalities is, could it happen here?

“If I could use Calgary’s water main break as an example, that’s what you don’t want to happen,” Regina Mayor Sandra Masters told reporters last week.

Regina’s water infrastructure, and keeping up with the multitude of other infrastructure needs the city faces, has been a prime topic at City Hall in recent weeks. A challenge for council has been trying to strike a balance between water and other projects, such as the new downtown library and the Aquatic Centre.

At a media scrum at City Hall last week, Masters made it known where she thought water ought to rank in priority.

“I know people like roads — I’m going to say wastewater and water are more important,” Masters said. “If you had your water cut off, it is a painful thing.”

She said making sure water and wastewater are operating properly and with “minimal disruption” is the most important thing the city does.

Regina has seen its own share of water issues. In recent years the city dealt with water main breaks, aging pipe infrastructure underground requiring replacement, and lead water connections at some homes. There is also the challenge of a growing city and ensuring there’s enough water infrastructure to keep up.

This month, council approved $100 million in debt financing for the Water Network Expansion project to upgrade and expand the water network in the city — that project includes a new water pumping station, storage reservoirs, and a new 8.4-kilometre water main.

Masters pointed to the upgrades being done at Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant, as well as the program to replace pipes underground in the city, saying there had been some wise decisions to ensure the continuation of the water supply, such as relining pipes.

She said the utility budget has millions of dollars set aside in a reserve and that it will be spent on these items. “We are actually addressing this on an ongoing basis annually.”

In a statement, the City of Regina said the city spent “$20 million to maintain the existing water system. This work includes the replacement or rehabilitation of watermains, water repairs and regular maintenance of watermains, service connections, valves, fire hydrants and curb stops.”

The water treatment plant

A big ticket item has been upgrades to the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant. Right now it is undergoing a $325 million expansion addressing aging infrastructure and modernizing the treatment processes. The expansion is also to prepare for growth in the region by 2050, which is about when the next plant upgrades would happen.

As for avoiding situations where the water supply from Buffalo Pound itself might get cut off to much of the city, such as what recently happened in Calgary, those involved with the plant’s operations pointed to its protocols and prevention.

Ryan Johnson, President and CEO of Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation, said it has an asset management plan in place which makes sure the plant gets preventative maintenance, and that it’s done on time so things will work when they need to. The plant also ensures, with its capital budgeting, that it’s repairing assets before they fail.

“It’s like you do proper maintenance on your car,” Johnson said, likening it an oil change.

In addition to asset management, the Buffalo Pound plant also has a risk management framework in case things do go wrong.

“We’ve identified the risks that could ‘put us out of business,’ is how we’ve called it,” said Johnson.

According to the Buffalo Pound plant’s 2023 annual report, such risks include aging infrastructure, regulatory changes, third-party causes and weather-related events.

The plant also has an emergency response plan ready in case any of those are triggered.

“If we lost one of our raw water pipelines, we have a plan in place where we would be able to pump water to the plant in an emergency type situation,” said Johnson.

He said the plant has contacts in the industry and people on its call list who can arrive within 24 hours. Those protocols are checked every two or three years to make sure they are up to date.

The hope is there will be less risk of problems in the future. Johnson said when the plant expansion is finally done, it will have in place something called “N+1 redundancies,” where it can still run at full capacity even with one part down.

As for the water pipelines, Johnson said those are inspected on a cycle.

“They were last inspected in the year 2020 and both of the pipelines were in good shape,” he said.

He said those will continue to be inspected as required.

There are water lines from Buffalo Pound to the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw. The Moose Jaw line is brand new and was replaced in just the last few years. Regina has two pipelines, one which Johnson said was replaced around 25 years ago — that line to the city would be looked after by the City of Regina.

“That’s something we’ve never had before — that will help keep us more resilient for future growth,” he said.

Having a plan

University of Regina associate professor of engineering Jacob Muthu said water pipeline failures can be classified into three areas: intrinsic failures that could be caused by age or joint issues, environmental failures, and failures based on operations such as internal pressure or other conditions.

“We need to make sure that we are routinely inspecting these factors for us to understand whether the pipelines are in working condition,” said Muthu.

To keep a line like the one from Buffalo Pound in working order, he said regular inspections should be done to make sure the pipes are stable and to check for any cracks or corrosion. There is ultrasonic testing that can be done, and if the pipelines are not in good condition the line could be isolated and hydrostatic testing could be done.

All the inspections do, Muthu said, is “give us those details, so based on that the inspector can decide if there any maintenance repair, any removal and replacement of the pipeline.”

Muthu said people don’t need to worry too much unless there isn’t a proper plan in place.

“If the city has the proper plan, maybe inspections, inspection data, analyzing the data and then applying the data into the actual piping system, that would really indicate all those issues,” Muthu said.

The Water Security Agency (WSA) is involved in regular inspections.

“As the regulator of this and other municipal waterworks in the province, WSA works closely with the Buffalo Pound treatment plant and the city of Regina to ensure the drinking water in Regina remains safe to drink,” said the WSA in a statement.

“The water treatment plant is co-owned by the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw, and the infrastructure to provide water from Buffalo Pound to Regina (including a twinned pipeline) are owned and operated by the city. WSA inspects these waterworks on regular intervals to ensure they are properly maintained, protected, and upgraded when required. In the event of a water main break WSA would work closely with the city of Regina to continue to provide safe drinking water to its residents.”