SLRWSC_SV_2020 - Engineering Consulting Services

A. Introduction

The Sylvan Lake Regional Wastewater Services Commission is proceeding to construct an extension of the regional wastewater transmission line and lift station from the NE 23-39-1 W5M to the Summer Village of Sunbreaker Cove.

A business plan was undertaken, which outlined the wastewater requirements and preliminary cost figures. This document served as the basis of the group’s submission for funding. Funding has been secured under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program and the Alberta Government’s Water for Life Program to complete this work.

The next step in the development of the transmission line and wastewater lift station is the engagement of an Engineering Consultant to develop a preliminary design, detailed design and tendering documents.

B. Past Studies

The Sylvan Lake Regional Wastewater System Business Plan 2019 lays out the Commission’s overall plan for developing a system to collect wastewater from all developed areas around Sylvan Lake.

Specifically, for Stage 4, a Technical Memo 13 was developed by Stantec Engineering in 2017 as a basis for applying for grants to complete this segment.

This Technical Memo is the premise on which the Commission will move ahead with the project. Several items of concern have been discovered since the development of this Tech Memo and will need addressing in the Preliminary and Detailed Design.

1. Pipe sizing and efficient operations
Design problems were discovered in previous phases of the system that had pipe oversized to allow for future growth. Pipe that was too large and was not able to achieve scouring velocities caused silting and plugging of lines and resulted in high maintenance costs. Options to address this are critical as the system must be designed to provide for future capacity, as well as operate in a cost-effective manner.

2. Metering and Measurement
Previous connections were made without reliable metering and measuring equipment in place forcing estimations to be used in calculating rates. A metering and measurement policy has been adopted by the Board which has objectives of volumes being calculated on actual measured volumes and a requirement for measurement redundancy to be in place.