Region of Waterloo council is set to consider approving more than $15 million in capital funding to pay for a project which could offer a short-term solution to the ongoing water capacity issues.
Staff will request the funding at a special council meeting on Friday afternoon. The costs of the project would be included in the 2026 capital budget and funded through the Water Capital Reserve Fund.
H2O Innovation Inc., an Oakville-based company, is set to be brought on to install three temporary ultrafiltration containers, with an estimated flow of 50 litres per second each, at the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant near Ottawa Street in Kitchener.
Those containers would be rented for 12 months “to confirm efficacy of the technology” before being purchased by the region.
According to staff, any delays in approvals could result in significant subsequent delays to the completion of this project, which looks to regain lost capacity at that plant. Staff are asking for approvals before a detailed design has been completed, in part because if a contractor isn’t secured by Feb. 13, the timelines for project completion would not be achievable.
If approved, the first tank would be installed and operating by June of this year, with the other two coming online by July 2027.
“This project will allow the region to continue to supply a safe, reliable and sustainable drinking water supply, while additional infrastructure projects are carried out,” reads the report from regional staff.
The current-year costs of this project are significantly higher in the report heading to council on Friday compared to the projections detailed in a report from late January. At that time, when council was presented with a variety of potential options, the current-year impact on the capital budget was $2 million.
Projections for the total cost of the project remain around $16 million, the $2 million price for engineering services and $2.5 million for electrical work are preliminary estimates.
Friday’s council meeting gets underway at 1:30 p.m.