ELORA – Test drilling in 2021 indicated the township’s F5 well can go deeper, so council voted at the committee of the whole meeting on March 21 to award a $120,480 contract to Lotowater Technical Services Inc. to do the work before peak water season in July.
That means the well, located at 900 Scotland St. in Fergus, will be able to pump at full capacity and will increase the township’s water supply.
“This has not increased our permit,” manager of engineering Adam Gilmore explained to council. “This well has huge turbidity so we could only pump at 20 or 30 per cent capacity.”
Turbidity refers to the amount of suspended solids in the water and it increases with high pumping rates.
Once the well is drilled deeper and connected to the system, “we can pump at full capacity,” Gilmore said.
The Water Supply Master Plan indicates that well F2, at 449 St. Andrew Street, should also be replaced. Gilmore said test drilling there indicates the township may need to change its permit to take water to dig deeper at this site and that would trigger a municipal class environmental assessment.
“We will do that after F5 is commissioned,” Gilmore said.
Council also voted to award contracts to John Brooks Company for grinder pumps and alarm panels valued at $35,000 and $63,500 respectively for its low-pressure sewage system in Salem. Council also awarded a contract to Evans Supply Ltd. for annual water meter purchases and the automatic meter read program.
The value of these contracts is $63,500 and $130,000 respectively and will allow for real-time data collection on water volumes.
“We did a pilot in Elora at the Daniel Crescent water tower and it allows real-time reading of meters,” said manager of environmental services Dino Masiero.
“Eventually it will be used in all of Centre Wellington.”
