To meet the ever-growing demand from Calgarians for potable water, the City of Calgary embarked on a C$35 million (US$27.9 million) project to replace the most critical water pump station in the city.
Calgary is one of Canada’s fastest-growing metropolitan cities and is the major urban centre for the southern half of the province of Alberta. Calgary is located in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers. Originally founded around agriculture, Calgary is now at the heart of Canada’s energy sector, with much of the current economy driven by oil and gas production.
With an expanding population of over 1.3 million and the continued diversification of industry and commerce, the ever-growing demand from Calgarians for potable water has to be met. To satisfy both current and future demands for safe and reliable drinking water, the City of Calgary has embarked on a C$35 million (US$27.9 million) project to replace the most critical water pump station in the city.
The existing Shaganappi Pump Station, originally constructed in 1978, supplies drinking water to over 200,000 residents of Calgary and its surrounding communities. Shaganappi Pump Station is Calgary’s largest pump station and is a vital component of the city’s water transmission network, which consists of 41 pump stations and 23 storage reservoirs, connected by over 4,500km of underground piping. This large number of pump stations and reservoirs is required due to the varying and often rugged topography of Calgary, which divides the city into many smaller water pressure zones based on elevation.
The project
The City of Calgary owns and operates two water treatment plants – the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant and the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant. These treatment facilities draw their source water from the Bow River and the Elbow River, respectively. Both treatment plants combined can produce a total of 950ML of clean drinking water per day. Treated water is stored on-site at the treatment plants before being pumped into the transmission network for distribution throughout the city.
The full article is available in the latest edition of Water & Wastewater Asia May/Jun 2022 issue. To continue reading, click here.
