No major capacity loss expected to Sydney water supply after well failure
Older pump overheated and caused well to fail, but remaining 10 wells at wellfield appear to be OK
Cape Breton Regional Municipality has to replace one of the 11 wells that supply Sydney with water after a pump suddenly lost most of its working capacity.
Ray Boudreau, CBRM's director of water and wastewater, said an older pump overheated after sediment blocked most of the water supplying that well.
"You could characterize it as natural wear and tear," he said. "Like any mechanical equipment, these parts have an expected useful life and this one just sort of ran its course."
Well failure is not an uncommon occurrence, but this one was a little unexpected, Boudreau said.
"A lot of times we get a bit of notice. We'll start to see a loss of capacity over time. This one just happened a little more rapidly than normal."
Boudreau said the loss of one well is putting strain on the whole system during peak usage and it could be a problem in an emergency, but the utility is planning on quickly digging a new one.
"At this time, the risk of any significant capacity loss in the system overall is low, just given the number of wells we have at the wellfield, but it's not something that we would want to let go for any amount of time," he said.
Two of the other wells are newer and the rest are checked regularly, Boudreau said, adding none of the others are showing any signs of trouble.
He said the utility has the $265,000 needed to dig a new well.
If the provincial Department of Environment approves the plan and the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board OK's the expense, a new one could be dug by the end of March, Boudreau said.
The wells all draw from one underground aquifer, but studies show there's more water there than CBRM uses, he said.
'Ounce of prevention'
During a committee of the whole meeting Tuesday, CBRM council authorized the water utility to dig a new well.
Mayor Cecil Clarke said council acted quickly to approve the replacement, but it was not deemed an emergency.
"I think this is about putting in an ounce of prevention because we don't want to find ourselves with any catastrophic failures or water resource limitations for any citizens," he said.
Clarke also said it's important to maintain the system's capacity, because CBRM is in talks with the province and Cape Breton University to extend water lines to CBU and the nearby Tanglewood residential subdivision.
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