Progress is made on providing water, sewer services for CentrePort

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2013 (4542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RM of Rosser and City of Winnipeg will soon sign an agreement on providing wastewater service from Winnipeg to the section of Rosser that lies within CentrePort.

Rosser reeve Frances Smee confirmed that Rosser council passed a resolution to enter into the agreement and city council has passed a similar motion.

The contract is now being drawn up. “It’s just a matter of signing it,” Smee said.

A sewer mainline will be extended into Brookside Industrial Park West, but the RM and area businesses will have to pay the cost of hooking up to the sewer system.

Water dilemma being resolved

Large-scale business development within Brookside Industrial Park West and other sections of CentrePort that lie within the RM has been restricted due to the lack of a water system. The City of Winnipeg was blocked from extending water service to the area by an international challenge over the city’s right to supply water outside its boundaries.

The Cartier Regional Water Co-op board passed a resolution on Aug. 15 approving, in principle, the construction of a new water treatment plant in the RM of Headingley to provide 120 litres of water per second.

Headingley mayor Wilf Taillieu said he expects construction to start in the spring, partially thanks to planning work — which included a new plant — done as part of a bid to have a Facebook data centre located in the western part of the municipality.

“That’s why everything’s in place,” he said.

Taillieu said the total project cost, which may include laying pipe from the new plant as far as the RMs of Rockwood and West St. Paul, is $44 million, with the plant itself costing $26 million.

The Cartier water co-op board agreed that the co-op will pay up to $3 million of the plant’s cost. The current plant on the Assiniboine River near St. Eustache provides service to approximately 10,000 people within the RMs of Portage la Prairie, Cartier, St. Francois Xavier, Headingley, Rosser and Rockwood.

Taillieu said a new plant is needed both to meet growing demand for water service and to act as a backup for the current plant, which is now operating at capacity.

“It’s needed right now,” he said.

The plant will be located on the Assiniboine River close to the Headingley Correctional Centre.

A provincial spokesman said funding arrangements are being negotiated, as initial design work for the water servicing project gets underway in advance of construction.

The province is also cost-sharing the extension of the city’s wastewater system into the RM of Rosser.

Facebook.com/TheHeadlinerWPG
Twitter: @CanstarHeadline