$6.6M water treatment upgrade aims to improve water quality for High Level

A $6.6 million water treatment upgrade is moving ahead in a northern Alberta town to improve water quality and bring down treatment costs. 

The town of High Level faces some of the highest costs in Alberta to treat its water due to the large amount of chemicals required to remove organic materials from the water, council heard at a meeting earlier this month. 

High Level is about 740 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.  

"We need to do something with our water because the quality is not improving. It is not meeting the government qualifications," Mayor Crystal McAteer said in an interview with CBC News.

"Sometimes the water doesn't smell very good and doesn't taste very good, so this project is a favourable project. We feel that it can improve our water."

McAteer said Footner Lake, where the town sources its raw water, is not replenished by a river or stream and levels have been inconsistent in recent years because of persistent drought conditions

There is also a lot of organic material in the water, McAteer said. 

A preliminary study alongside the Dene Tha First Nation is underway to identify an alternate water source, she said. 

The town received $3.4 million in funding through a cost-sharing program with the province. The remaining $3.2 million will come from the town over the next 10 years. 

Council voted unanimously in favour of the project at a Jan. 13 meeting.

Water treatment complex and expensive

Keith Straub, director of operations for the town, said the project is for a pre-treatment process known as magnetic ion exchange, which removes naturally occurring organic materials from the water before it enters the treatment process. 

"The water source has been an ongoing battle," said Straub, who has been with the town for 30 years.

Straub said the lake is very shallow with lots of organic material.

"It's extremely hard to treat. We have to put pretty well as much technology as we can toward it to get the water to a safe, potable condition."

The system has been in use in Australia since 2002 and is now standard across as many as 70 water treatment plants in a dozen countries.

Construction will begin later this year and is expected to be complete by spring 2026.