Head water

In the mist, a 7.7 trillion gallon reservoir

County to consider water pipeline from Wellington to Picton

It is not a new idea. The notion that Wellington’s water plant, pulling water from a kilometre into Lake Ontario to supply various parts of the County—and beyond, has been kicked around in various forms for at least two decades, perhaps longer.

It is a relatively modern plant and may be scaled up rather easily to accommodate additional demand. The water is clean and plentiful.

Meanwhile Picton entered the amalgamated County with its waterworks system in shambles. The sewage treatment plant was replaced first. Once again, Wellington was looked at as an option to process Picton’s wastewater but ruled out early on as too expensive. (It remains unclear, however, how the cost would have compared with constructing the new plant on a hillside overlooking the village.)

The water plant is nearing the end of its life and the municipality has been looking at how it might replace the intake pipe for about five years. Each proposal has increased the cost of the project by about half a million dollars.

So the municipality is considering asking senior levels of government for funding so that it may expand the Wellington water plant and run a pipeline to Picton. Further they want to expand the Wellington wastewater plant and run a parallel pipeline to Waring’s Corners to move the waste from the west side of Picton to Wellington for processing.

The price tag is pegged at about $80 million.

Municipal officials are looking for approval this week at council committee meeting to submit a proposal to the P3 Canada Fund. If successful the funding would cover a maximum of 25 per cent of the total project cost.

Municipal officials expect the bulk of the County’s funding would come from the advanced collection of development and connection charges provided by potential private partners.

Council will have plenty to chew on this Thursday.