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Pugwash Water Supply

Full design and construction of a new water supply system for the Village of Pugwash.

Project Value

  • $13,500,000

Project Status

  • Completed November 2018

The Village of Pugwash is a community of 750 fulltime residents, situated on the east side of the Pugwash Harbour. The Village did not have a central water supply system and the local groundwater was of poor quality.

The Municipality’s main objective was providing a safe, reliable source of potable water. The residents, businesses and institutions in and around Pugwash currently rely on individual wells to supply drinking water. Many of these wells are contaminated with dangerous metals, including arsenic, lead and uranium, as well as elevated levels of chloride, making the water unsafe to drink.

Challenges

  • Limited locations in the area that could support a wellfield with the required quality and quantity of water. This resulted in the wellfield being approximately 12 km outside of the Village, and in an isolated area. This led to additional infrastructure requirements to support the wellfield and treatment plant, plus additional transmission watermain to reach the residents.
  • The funding was provided through 3 levels of government with deadlines that resulted in an aggressive design schedule.
  • Source water had a high turbidity, the solution was to install a liner in all three wells.
  • Construction took place in several phases resulting in 5 tenders/construction contracts.
Length of watermain
24 km
Residents served
750
Water usage
985 l/min
Storage tank volume
1,400 m3
Storage tank height
20 m

Clean water for the community

WSP was retained by the Municipality to complete the Pre-Design and Detailed Design for the potable water infrastructure required to provide domestic water supply to the residents of the Village of Pugwash. The pre-design evaluated design options for the provision of an economically sustainable domestic potable water supply. The detailed design elements include a biological iron and manganese removal water treatment facility, treated water storage reservoir, approximately 22 km of water transmission system and water distribution system to service the entire village and outlying areas.

 

 

First of its kind

  • First biological iron and manganese removal water treatment facility in Nova Scotia.
  • Treatment technology requires no oxidizing chemicals resulting in lower operating costs.
  • Treated water that meets both the current requirements of the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality, and proposed changes to the Health Canada Guidelines for manganese removal.

 

Primary services

  • Hydraulic Modeling
  • Water Treatment Plant Design, including Process, Structural, Mechanical and Electrical
  • Instrumentation and Controls
  • Water Storage Reservoir Design
  • Transmission and Distribution System Pipe Design
  • Environmental Permitting
  • Construction Administration and Inspection

 

OTHER CHALLENGES THAT WE HAVE OVERCOME