It’s a big green box that will soon send millions of litres of water to tubs throughout St. Albert.
The Gazette checked in on construction of the new Sturgeon Heights Reservoir on July 24. The $33 million project aims to build a new water storage and distribution hub just behind Holy Family Catholic School to replace the existing Sturgeon Heights reservoir, which is next to said school.
The current reservoir dates back to 1957 and is the oldest in town, said Regan Lefebvre, senior manager of utilities for the City of St. Albert. It consists of three round and two rectangular concrete tanks all built at different times with different connections at different elevations. That mishmash causes circulation problems and means the city can tap just 16,700 of the reservoir’s 18,900 cubic metre capacity.
City crews are replacing the current Sturgeon Heights reservoir due to its great age, said city senior projects manager Meredith Willacy. Work on the new reservoir and pumphouse started Jan. 31, 2023, with final tests on it now in progress.
The new underground reservoir is about 93 m long, 56 m wide, and 5 m deep, and will soon have a soccer field built on top of it, Willacy said. Water from Epcor’s treatment plant comes into the reservoir from two large stainless steel pipes, runs through a water meter the size of a banker’s box, and enters one of two long, rectangular, twisty concrete cells. Agitators help keep water in the cells from going stagnant.
Lefebvre said the new reservoir can theoretically hold about 23,000 cubic metres of water — enough to fill about nine Olympic-sized swimming pools or all the pools and the hot tub in the Fountain Park Recreation Centre about 16 times over. In practice, the city would never fill the reservoir all the way since it might overflow, and could not use all the water in it, as some has to be reserved for firefighting and the pumps in it don’t reach the bottom. That leaves the reservoir’s effective maximum capacity at 18,900 cubic metres (about 7.6 Olympic pools).
When someone in St. Albert opens a tap, the pumps in the big green box of a pumphouse above ground spin up to provide the pressure. The pumphouse (made from concrete and insulated metal panels with translucent bits to let in light) contains seven black variable-frequency drive pumps, Willacy said. Each pump spins up as demand rises, with up to six running at once and the seventh serving as a spare. The pumps feed into a large stainless steel distribution line that, along with lines from the Oakmont and Lacombe Park reservoirs, supply St. Albert with water.
Finishing touches
Willacy said crews were now testing the pumps for leaks and hoped to have the reservoir filled and operational by late September.
“If we do it right, nobody will even realize we’ve switched over to the new one.”
Crews would then shut off the intake at the old reservoir and let it drain, Willacy continued. After they take care of potential toxins such as mercury in lights and asbestos in cement, crews will dig up the reservoir’s tanks, cut the tops off, chuck the debris into the tanks, and rebury them. Landscaping around the new and old reservoir sites should be complete by Spring 2025.
Willacy said the new reservoir was expected to last about 50 years.
It will also undergo additional improvements this fall, Willacy and Lefebvre said. In September, crews will replace the 600 mm pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe (the kind of pipe that broke and caused a water crisis in Calgary earlier this year) leading into the reservoir with a 500 mm plastic pipe placed inside of it.
Lefebvre said the city will likely need to build a fourth reservoir to its north sometime around 2038.
Questions on the reservoir replacement project should go to [email protected].
