Major drinking water public-private partnership
celebrates plant dedication

The Greater Moncton area has a total population of 100,000.

Canada's first major drinking water public-private partnership between the City of Moncton, N.B., USF Canada, and The Hardman Group, dedicated its new 100,000 m³/day [22 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD)] water treatment facility in Moncton, last year.

Major beneficiaries of the public-private partnership are the 100,000 residents of the Greater Moncton area who have been enjoying some of the highest quality drinking water in Canada. The public-private partnership agreement provides ratepayers with savings of approximately 11 percent in utility costs over a traditional public design, build and operation.

A public competition to select a private company to design, build, operate, and maintain a new water treatment facility to serve the Greater Moncton area was initiated by the City of Moncton in 1996. In April 1998, Greater Moncton Water Ltd., a New Brunswick incorporated company owned by USF Canada, Inc. (85%) and The Hardman Group Limited (15%), was awarded the 20-year contract based on technical merit, corporate capabilities and price.

The $23 million water treatment plant was built over an 18-month period and is designed to meet or exceed all Canadian drinking water quality criteria. The facility utilizes a multi-media, high-rate adsorption/clarification process that has been employed successfully at hundreds of other water treatment projectsacross North America.

The new facility will filter water from the Turtle Creek Reservoir and is designed to remove turbidity, colour, iron and manganese, as well as microbial contaminants from the water. In addition, the plant corrects alkalinity and hardness, as well as taste and odour problems that previously detracted from the quality of Moncton's water. The new process will reduce the need to treat the area's drinking water with high levels of chlorine, a common complaint with the old water treatment system.

The City of Moncton purchased the plant from USF Canada and The Hardman Group, Ltd. and entered into a 20-year lease and license agreement giving Greater Moncton Water Ltd. exclusive rights to sell water to the municipality. The unique arrangement between the City and its private sector partners enables Moncton to assume ownership without having to make any up-front capital investment in the facility. USF Canada will oversee and manage plant operations. Significant savings were passed directly to Moncton through the use of USFilter's Trident water filtration process that reduced the facility's required size by 40 percent.

Detailed engineering design for the facility was completed by Touchie Engineering Ltd. from Moncton, in association with R.V. Anderson Associates of Willowdale, Ontario.

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