What do you do with 800,000 litres of barely-used water? If you are in Sylvan Lake, you recycle it of course.
The Town of Sylvan Lake has taken two separate situations involving large amounts of water and found secondary uses for it.
On Saturday, the Slide the City event used about 300,000 litres of the town’s water. The portable water slide event attracted about 1,100 users.
Joanne Gaudet, communication co-ordinator for the town, said the Public Works department staff got creative in making the event work, without wasting water.
Sylvan Lake’s swimming pool has been closed all summer while an engineering report is being prepared to look at structural concerns and how the building will connect to a new multiplex facility, the NexSource Centre. That report is expected in the fall.
The town decided to pump the water used during Slide the City into the empty swimming pool at the Aquatic Centre. The water was pumped through hoses into the town’s storm drainage system, and then into the pool, which was filled.
The storm drainage system was cleaned before the water went through it, Gaudet said. The storm lines are separate from the town’s sewage line system.
The water in the pool is now being used to flush out the town’s storm sewer system, which is a regular maintenance procedure.
Using the pool to conserve water is “actually a really good news story,” Mayor Sean McIntyre said.
“We’re using the resource twice.”
“Water is a precious resource to us. When there’s an avenue we can use it again, we’re going to use it again.”
In another water-saving initiative, the town is performance testing a new well it has drilled. Instead of pumping 500,000 litres of water onto the ground, the town brought in temporary storage tanks to hold it for fire department training.
It’s enough water to cover one NHL-sized rink three metres deep, Gaudet said.
One fire department pump training session can use as much as 300,000 litres, she said.
Sylvan Lake’s water supply is on a well system and various water conservation practices are undertaken, such as watering on odd-even days.
barr@www.reddeeradvocate.com