By Cecilia Nasmith

Smart investments in Cobourg's drinking water system are required to ensure its sustainability in the coming decades of growth, council heard at this week's committee-of-the-whole meeting.

Details came from Dan Campbell, CIMA+ senior project manager, as he reported on the town's first Drinking Water System Master Plan.

The idea is to examine the system and usage as they stand today, forecast changes associated with growth, and identify necessary areas of expansion that would ensure the system's sustainability.

Usage stands at an average 9,032 cubic metres a day, 60% of which is residential and takes care of the needs of 20,961. The per capita demand is 282 litres a day.

“While the average day is important, we have to account for what is the maximum day demand,” Campbell said.

Maximum daily usage is about 1.7 times the average daily demand, and that is the capacity that must be available to the residential and non-residential users of that day (forecast to occur in 2050) when the town is – as he referred to it – at build-out. By that time, usership will have grown by about 79%.

The good news is that the current water treatment plant at the foot of D'Arcy Street – built in 1978, upgraded in 1987 and 2002 – has ample capacity, but a variety of investments in the system will still be necessary to make it sustainable.

One element that will need replacement is that big domed clarifier that has the mural on it. The preferred option is to build its replacement on the same site, just east of the present clarifier, and then tear down the old one.

Another high-visibility upgrade will be the new pumping and storage location that will be required. The most favourable location for this $1.6-million project is on the grounds of the Cobourg Community Centre.

Then there's the gradual replacement of pipes, some of them cast-iron relics from the 1920s, and a $2.8-million annual investment is suggested.

All told, Campbell spoke of $84.6-million in costs related to the master plan over the next 10 years – 56% funded by users' water rates and 44% by development charges.

“I have a completely new appreciation for Cobourg's drinking-water system,” Councillor Emily Chorley remarked at the end of the hour-long presentation.

Mayor John Henderson and Lakefront Utility Services Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Dereck Paul also expressed enthusiasm.

“It's the first of its kind, and something we are very proud to have completed as we look to a future of sustainability,” Paul said.