The Town of Strathmore will begin to work on a multi-step plan to decommission the aging Brentwood Reservoir. To help with the costs of this project, the Town is applying for the Alberta Municipal Water & Wastewater Partnership (AMWWP) Grant.

One of the big focuses of decommissioning the reservoir is making sure other options will be able to make up for the loss. This includes upgrading the existing Wildflower Reservoir and upgrading the distribution system. Town of Strathmore's Manager of Infrastructure Ethan Wilson explained several steps need to be taken to ensure our community has water before moving ahead with decommissioning Brentwood.

"Now that the Brentwood Reservoir is looking to be decommissioned, we do know that we need to increase pumping capacity at Wildflower to accommodate for fire flows and just general pressures throughout the town," he said.

"Wildflower can increase its storage capacity, that would be the next step in increasing our reservoir capacity, and following that would be the construction of a new reservoir on the east side of town once developments on that side of town start to take off."

The Wildflower upgrades projects in 2023 would focus just on design to make sure they're on the right track, and the upgrades themselves would take place between 2024-2026.

In the event the AMWWP grant is unsuccessful for Strathmore, the Town has still properly budgeted for the Wildflower upgrades to go through. An unsuccessful application would instead impact the decommissioning of Brentwood itself, which wouldn't have a huge impact on the overall project itself.

"It's a priority, but it's not a must-be-done-next-year priority."

In total, the cost of this project is estimated to be more than $6.7 million (including 30% contingency), and the grant being applied for is around $2 million

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@strathmorenow.com 

Related Stories