PUC takes it down to the metal in discoloured water fight

The Sault Ste. Marie PUC will soon start testing a new way to prolong the life of the city’s water mains, beginning with two east end streets.

The $900,000 water main relining program will begin next week on Irwin Avenue and Tuckett Street, with the help of Laval, Quebec contractor Aquarehab.

The process should be done by the end of November.

“This will extend the life of those water mains another 50 years,” said Dominic Parrella, PUC president and CEO, speaking to SooToday after Wednesday’s PUC board meeting.

“In addition, it removes all that scale from the pipe, and so it eliminates that section of pipe contributing to discoloured water.”

“It’s an incremental improvement, it’s part of a long-term plan (to improve the city’s water quality),” Parrella said.

After temporary service lines are run from house to house above ground for PUC customers, water mains are taken out of service, pits are dug 300 to 400 metres apart on the street, and water mains are then cleaned out through scouring which removes all build up, right down to the metal.

Once the water mains are cleaned out with good quality water and dried, a resin liner is fed into the pipe.

The liner then hardens and fits very tightly to the interior pipe wall, extending the water main’s life span, Parrella explained.

“We’re not digging up the whole street, there is some excavation at the access pits, so there’s minimal disruption to property owners and PUC customers.”

Meanwhile, the PUC’s East End Water Quality Action Plan telephone survey continues.

“So far our success rate is about 50 percent, meaning someone answers and agrees to participate in the survey,” Parrella said.

The PUC’s goal is to obtain input from 7,000 households in the survey.

In other items from Wednesday’s PUC board meeting:

• Parrella said the PUC is pleased to be housing Convergent Energy and Power’s seven-megawatt battery project at one of its substations on McNabb Street, the project designed to show how electricity can be stored with specially-designed batteries and then distributed at peak times of use.

• 8,200 of the city’s 9,000 street lights have now been converted to LED technology.  The PUC estimates the LED street light conversion process will be completed by the end of October, and save PUC customers approximately $1 million in energy costs annually.  “We’ve had praise from people saying they like the lights,” Parrella said.