CARSTAIRS - The Town of Carstairs waterworks system is in good working order according to recent compliance testing conducted by Alberta Environment and Parks, say officials.
The 27-page compliance inspection report was presented to council during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
“A risk based inspection assessment was completed by Alberta Environment and Parks and the Carstairs waterworks has been found to have no health, operational or administrative risks,” environmental protection officer Larry West said in the report.
The inspection was conducted in town in August. In completing the inspection, assessment officials considered more than two dozen health risk assessment questions regarding the system.
“Please review the comments section for each question as well as the overall inspection summary. This will assist the registration holder in understanding how the specific risks were identified during the inspection.”
Questions considered and the related responses include the following:
• Were emergency situations, such as failure to meet chorine/ozone residual limits, contact times, ultra violet disinfection limits, dealt with as required by the approval, code of practice or legislation? The report states: “No emergency situations arose in the town in the past couple of years since the last inspection. According to the operator the town’s pro-activeness in replacing older water mains has resulted in far fewer water breaks.”
• Have approval/code of practice and potable water regulation contraventions for health risk assessment been properly reported? “According to the operators no health contraventions required reporting since the last inspection.”
• Are waste streams that are being released from the water treatment plant meeting the approval requirements? “The only waste streams at the pump house are sink wastes which go into the sanitary system.”
• Is the approval/registration holder diligently ensuring that all bacteriological sampling is done properly? “According to the operators there have been no failed bacteriological samples or samples rejected for labelling errors or late arrivals. The operator had a map of the sampling locations used for bacteria sampling.”
• Is the drinking water safety plan completed as per the approval/code of practice? “The drinking water safety plan is completed and was reviewed in March of 2020. No key risks were identified.”
• Is the operator’s certification, including backup operators, appropriate for the facility? The report states: For each level of certified operator required by the approval or code of practice the equivalent number of certified operators must be available as backup. There are two certified operators employed by the town.
Councillors accepted the compliance inspection assessment report as information.
Franchise fee remains unchanged
Meanwhile, council has decided that the ATCO franchise agreement fee paid to the municipality in 2022 will remain unchanged from 2021. The move also came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
Under an agreement with ATCO the municipality has the ability to change the franchise fee in 2022 as it has in the past. In 2021 the town’s percentage is 25 per cent.
In a letter to the town, ATCO manager of the ATCO natural gas division Jamie Jaques said, “Our forecast delivery tariff revenue for 2022 is $1,254,219. Therefore, based on current franchise fee percentage, the forecast 2022 franchise fee revenue would be $313,555.”
