Richard Froese
South Peace News

The Town of High Prairie will replace a broken watermain at the south river crossing of West Prairie River with funding support from Big Lakes County

At its regular meeting Aug. 27, council was told by public works Supt. Vern Walker that the cost to replace the south river crossing was estimated at $314,000.

He notes water at the crossing also serves a part of Big Lakes.

As a result, town council passed a motion to refer the matter to Big Lakes for Inter-municipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) to negotiate funding of up to 50 per cent from Big Lakes.

Big Lakes council passed a motion to fund the project at its regular council meeting Aug. 28.

“It is recommended that a new line is directionally drilled across the river, replacing a 40-plus-year-old line,” Walker says.

Proceeding with the project would replace the south river crossing and reinstate the second potable water river crossing, providing back-up to the north river crossing, he says.

Not doing this project would leave the west side of the river properties and the county co-ops out of water in the event of a north crossing failure.

An operator on call noticed a significant flow increase at the water treatment plant on May 5 and immediately started looking for any indications of water flowing to the surface anywhere in town, Walker says in a report to council.

After hours of looking and calls to Big Lakes to inquire if any of the water co-ops had problems, nothing was reported.

The operator continued to look for possible leak locations.

A disturbance was noticed at the riverbank just above the waterline.

“After looking at the ways to approach how to find out where the pipe had ruptured, it was decided it was best to dig down to the pipe again and cut a hole in it and send a camera down the line to try to see exactly the cause of the rupture,” Walker says.

When the water levels stabilized after the June and July rains, this work was completed.

“The camera did not reveal the exact cause of the break and is unknown,” Walker says.

“After measurements and calculations from the distance the camera travelled down the line, it has been determined that it broke somewhere below the water line of the river.

“The camera entered water in the pipe at the level of the river and it was evident that as the river level increases, so does the water level in the pipe due to straining of the pipe walls.”

“On May 6, crews started to excavate to install a new valve on the west side of the river, which once installed, would isolate the south river crossing without having any customers affected by the break on the river crossing,” Walker says.

“Meanwhile, the north river crossing that was installed a few years ago continued to supply the west side of town and the county water co-ops.”

Crews completed the valve installation in the early hours of May 7, he says.