City grilled on the new Greensville well’s $6M price tag
Regulations require public water service to 36 homes, project boss says
The city’s plan to replace Greensville’s aging municipal well didn’t make much financial sense to some people at an online public meeting Thursday that confirmed Johnson Tew Park as the preferred spot for a new one.
A resident identified only as Gary was among those who questioned spending an estimated $6 million to provide water to the 36 homes hooked up to the existing well near the corner of Harvest Road and Forest Avenue.
He said that works out to “a humungous cost” of about $167,000 per home, contending it would be far cheaper for the city to pay for wells at each of the affected homes.
“I’ve been putting in a lot of wells myself and a complete water-treatment system for a home is between $10,000 and $12,000 for a well that might be up to 70 feet deep,” he said. “If you’re looking at 36 homes, you’re looking at $300,000 to $400,000.”
But city project manager Marco Silverio said individual wells aren’t an option because Greensville’s publicly owned drinking water system was a condition of approval when the 36 homes were built five decades ago.
He said communal municipal wells are no longer supported by the city’s current official plan policies, which is why the new well won’t add other area homes that rely on their own wells.
“The city has a regulatory requirement to maintain the existing water supply to where we are currently providing those services and that is the scope of the project,” Silverio said, adding the cost will be borne by the city’s water-rate budget.
“It would not be possible at this point to abandon the drinking water system as it is being currently operated and go to a system of private well ownership.”
Harvest Road resident Richard McLagan said Johnson Tew Park is “a bird sanctuary of sorts” and the city should compensate for space lost to the new well’s treatment building and well head by supporting conservation efforts.
He suggested funding a local effort to build a nesting structure for threatened barn swallows, estimated at $25,000.
“It is an arboretum,” McLagan said of the park, opened in 2017. “There’s something that would be appreciated, for the very small amount of the resources that can be put into this.”
Silverio thanked McLagan and another resident leading the barn swallow project for the suggestion, noting possible compensation for lost space will be discussed with the city’s parks division.
The preferred location for the new well is by the park’s path entrance at Cedar Avenue. It would include an underground reservoir to provide a backup water supply, unlike the existing well.
Project consultant Nicole McLellan said design revisions have been made to try to minimize the impacts on the park, including reducing the treatment building’s footprint.
Trees will be planted around the perimeter of the treatment building; McLellan noted the plan will honour a tree study recommendation for a protection zone of 16 to 18 metres around a red oak tree that’s about 200 years old. The city will continue to take comments on the plan until May 3 and then prepare a final report which will be subject to a 30-day public commenting period, she added.