Water pre-treatment upgrade approved for the town of High Level

The Town of High Level is moving forward on a project that could substantially improve water quality while saving the community hundreds of thousands of dollars in water treatment costs.

At their Regular Meeting on Jan. 13, 2025, Council passed a resolution to move ahead with a water treatment pre-treatment upgrade project worth about $6.6 million. The project is possible thanks to generous funding from the Government of Alberta under its Transportation and Economic Corridors’ Alberta Municipal Water Wastewater Partnership and Water for Life programs. The funding amount totals nearly $3.4 million for the project. The remaining $3.2 million will be debentured by the Town over the next 10 years.

“The Town of High Level has some of the highest water treatment costs in the province,” said Mayor McAteer. “This is an important project that will improve the quality of life for our community as well as for our water users, and at the same time will save us money further into the process on carbon and chemical costs.”

The pre-treatment process is known as MEIX – Magnetic Ion Exchange. It is similar to a water softener, except its purpose is to remove naturally occurring organic carbons, colour, sulphates, and bromide from the water before it enters the primary water treatment process. This “pre-treatment” process improves the final disinfecting, lowers activated carbon demand, and reduces overall operational costs.

The system had its first large-scale implantation in Australia in 2002 and is now a standard pre-treatment practice in more than 70 water treatment plants in 12 countries, including the United States and Canada.

A pilot study was completed at the Water Treatment Plant in 2023 in coordination with Associated Engineering and found that the MIEX process led to reduced coagulant use, decreased organics loading on treatment filters, and reduced disinfectant byproducts. These favourable results were instrumental in the Town moving forward with this project.

Construction of the MIEX project will begin in 2025, with the renovation of the water treatment plant to accommodate the new construction of the MEIX system. Project completion and commissioning of the project is expected in spring of 2026.

Image credit to the Town of High Level.

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