Managing a community’s water resources is one of the most challenging tasks for future generations and the Town of Ladysmith is no different.
According to the Town of Ladysmith’s Director of Infrastructure Tim Tanton, that was top of list when he arrived.
“I got here in August and the first thing I wanted to do was learn about the infrastructure. I've reviewed all sorts of engineering reports, going back as far as the 1940s, and I was pleased to discover a long term pattern of good planning here particularly with the water system.”
Tanton, who has a 38 year career in private and municipal infrastructure and planning said he was pleased to see good groundwork.
“When I look back over major decisions about putting in dams, raising dams, there was always a lot of scientific backup, which was really good to see,” he said. “I've worked on all sorts of systems. I've worked about half of my career in the private sector, and then I transitioned into municipal work. I've worked at West Vancouver, where they have their own water supply system, including a reservoir and a membrane filtration plant.”
He also worked at the Capital Regional District and was involved in the dams in that system including the Sooke dam and other lakes the Victoria Region uses in their water system.
“So it's kind of my first love,” he said. “I love water supply, and when I came here, boy, was I pleased to see what I saw. I mean, Ladysmith's in really good shape.”
He said the town's water quality is very good.
"We have a naturally vegetated watershed and reservoirs where we don't have a lot of activity. When you go to other jurisdictions, you'll find out they have motor boats on their reservoir or they have swimmers or things like that. So we have relatively pristine water to begin with. The clarity is amazing, the lack of turbidity in our water is very rare in municipal systems. We do regular testing on the raw water before it gets to the filtration plant, it is tested during the treatment process and tested again at water taps all over the distribution network to make sure things are still safe. As with all municipalities across B.C., we report results regularly to the Health Authority, and Ladysmith has no recurring issues."
He said the community is looking at raising its dams to ensure the community continues to have enough water into the future.
“We're in a preliminary design phase in 2025 for Holland Lake dams, but right now, we think that the east and west dams will be raised about five feet,” he said.
In 2024 the town received grants from both the federal and provincial governments, totalling almost $10.8 million, for upgrades to the Holland Lake dams as well as other improvements to the supply system.
“It's possible we would dredge the reservoir as well, because what we're after is increasing the volume of storage. One of the reasons we need to do that is because of climate change. We're supposed to get longer, drier summers. So what we need to last through that is more storage. I’m pleased to say, in addition to great water quality, we're also in good shape from a quantity perspective. We have enough water to service the community’s Official Community Plan build out. A lot of municipalities simply can't say that.”
There's also more work in the offing.
“We will be replacing Stocking Lake Dam in 2026 and twinning the line from Stocking Lake down to the treatment plant," Tanton said. "Part of this line was replaced a few years ago, so this will be the remaining part. A future project will be building what we call an interconnect line from Holland Lake down to Stocking Lake and connecting to the pipeline I just talked about.
“The exciting thing is possible hydroelectric generation," he said. "So we'd have something like a turbine generator near Stocking Lake. Believe it or not, there's about 300 metres of difference between the elevation of Holland Lake's surface and Stocking Lake surface. We could harness all that energy in a turbine and generate some electricity. That's something we're doing preliminary design on right now.”
When the line is complete they will no longer have to send water down Holland Creek, though base creek flows will be maintained.
"We'll take the water that's naturally clarified in Holland Lake, run it down the new pipe, all the way to the treatment plant. Right now, we are removing some turbidity created during the five kilometre journey down Holland Creek, from Holland Lake to Chicken Ladder intake and then sent to the plant. Our plant's capable of removing that, but in the future, when we have a new pipeline, it will be cleaner before it even gets to the plant.”
The town's water filtration facility was fully commissioned in 2020 and any growing pains have been largely ironed out.
"It’s a huge project for our town. We have fantastic and very highly trained staff up there. There is a lot of initiative and as a newcomer here, I was amazed to find out we have such a brand new plant and the dedication of the operators, it's really state of the art.”
Between the community’s waste water and potable water plants there are six employees, with impressive skill sets.
The existing plant can handle a population increase.
"There are expansion plans that were built into the plant. So we can add additional treatment apparatus without having to enlarge the building. One of the things that's going to come, in the not too distant future, is another reservoir. So it would be twinning Arbutus reservoir and that provides us better fire protection and more storage as the population grows.”
Tanton said an asset management plan is in place, along with budgeting for the long term.
"So all of the components in the municipality, every pipe, every valve is on our schedule," he said. "For example, if we expect a component to last 50 years, we put away money so that when the 50th year comes, we've got a budget to replace it.”
