In addition to the water main and sewer main work that's happening on Brandt Street right now, Steinbach Waterworks has a number of projects to complete this year.

Mike Heppner is the Head of Steinbach Waterworks. He says each of the city's wells gets an in-depth inspection every 10 years and notes this year they found some issues with well #3 in K.R. Barkman Park.

"We pulled that one in early March I believe and did an assessment of the mechanics and determined that the well's pump had reached the end of its life and was up for renewal so we are in the process right now. We have ordered the parts and we are waiting for delivery. Along with so many other things, it's a little bit of a challenge through these COVID times so there have been delays in delivery."

Heppner says the total cost of replacing the pump and impeller comes in at roughly $35,000. He notes the old pump had been in place since the well was drilled back in 1985 so the city really got its money's worth.

Heppner says crews will also finish painting the water tower this year.

"Right now, we want to keep our reserves available to us and that water tower holds close to 400,000 gallons of reserves up there. We will be waiting until this high demand subsides because we do have to drain that upper bowl in order to get that painting done. We started on that project last fall. We had the column redone and the crew is coming back sometime in Spring or Summer to do the upper bowl assembly."

Heppner says the upper bowl will be repainted and the whole water tower will get a new clear coat as well.

Meanwhile, Heppner notes the city’s new bulk water station on Acres Drive is now up and running. He says the station went into service on April 6th and they have already put out over 2,200 cubic meters of water from there.

"Large water haulers have the opportunity to hook up and take water as needed. The station is available to them once they have an account set up, 24 hours a day if need be. It is set up for larger users, it is more cumbersome and fairly costly if you are just using small quantities. In order to make it worthwhile, you need to be pulling a fairly large amount of water."

As an example, he says one customer runs a business filling up pools for people around the province. He notes the bulk water station kind of works like a card-lock gas bar.