Regina’s fluoride water treatment delayed until 2027

Regina’s water fluoridation postponed to 2027 over treatment plant complications with the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant. Jacob Carr reports.

The fluoridation of the City of Regina’s water supply has been delayed until next year.

Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant CEO Ryan Johnson told CTV News that over 95 per cent of the major work on the plant’s renewal project has been completed.

What remains he says is some small commissioning work along with some deficiency work that’s being done by the project’s general contractor.

“There is a bunch of civil work that they’re still working on, and that should be wrapped up by this time next year. But for all intents and purposes, the most important work is basically done. Now they’re just cleaning things up for sure,” said Johnson.

“They still have to knock a building down and complete the administration lab, maintenance shop work, and then they have to move the control room over. The work is basically done with exemptions from civil work. So, from that perspective, it’s actually really, really good news. But there is still the general contractor on site for sure.”

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Johnson said the work to implement fluoride into the water system was originally scheduled for the midway point of 2025.

That was when the general contractor involved with the plant’s renewal project was scheduled to be off site, and then the new contractor responsible for the fluoridation would come in.

But things did not go to plan, according to Johnson.

An error on the part of the current general contractor has seen the work backed up, causing delays with fluoride implementation.

“What has happened is in their construction, there is a piece of work they had to do in what we call a chemical building, and that’s where a lot of our chlorine is kept in other chemicals,” said Johnson.

“When we tendered out the work for the design work for the flooring system, at the time, all indications were that things would be built as just as it was designed. Unfortunately, after they were done the design work, I guess they found that the chemical building and some of the placement of equipment and how they ran pipes and electrical works were not as designed, which created a bunch of re-work.”

Johnson anticipates that the contractor who wins the bid for the fluoridation project will begin their work this summer.

“They can’t do a lot of the work until the equipment starts arriving. So when equipment arrives, by the time everything’s installed, we’re anticipating that we should be producing fluoridated water for the City of Regina sometime in the summer of 2027.”