A leak in the main water line in the area between the treatment plant in Grande Prairie and Highway 40 has stalled Aquatera’s Water To Wembley project.
“Leaks do occur, but they’re not usually found until you get until this point in time. What is unfortunate, and a little bit frustrating, is they’re occurring in the worst ground conditions we could possibly have,” says Engineering Services Manager Ralph Wohlgemuth.
The $22 million water line which will run from the Aquatera treatment plant in the city to the Wembley reservoir was expected to be operational by early to mid-June. Wohlgemuth says the land, which is low lying and waterlogged, will in the best case scenario only delay the construction by a couple of weeks.
He adds construction on the 26-kilometre line which began in 2018 has gone fairly smoothly otherwise, but admits frustration in seeing delays so late in the game.
“There is really no way around preventing that during construction than perhaps just some additional TLC ar the time. But, that’s hindsight and that always works better than foresight.”
Wohlgemuth says the hope for Aquatera is to extend the line to Beaverlodge, Hythe, and Horse Lake First Nation after completing construction on the Wembley project.