TERRACE BAY — Repairs to the electrical systems of Terrace Bay's water treatment plant Terrace Bay are being planned, nearly two years after sustaining damage from lightning.
In the summer of 2021, lightning struck one of the transformers for the water treatment plant resulting in equipment damage and in a shutdown of the plant.
Shortly after, the town issued a boil water advisory until the generator was temporarily fixed.
In the spring of 2022, the Ontario Clean Water Agency submitted a report to council on the potential repairs and recommended that further investigation was required “over a period of time,” to know the extent of the damages and the cost to fix the equipment, according to Terrace Bay operations manager Ryan Falzetta.
"Since the initial incident there have been several instances where the stand-by generator failed to start on demand, causing a pressure loss to the distribution system requiring a boil water advisory to be issued,” Falzetta told council on Monday.
The municipality has contracted KGS Engineering to assess the electrical system and provide recommendations on the repairs.
Falzetta said once the assessment is finalized council will know the total cost of the repair, as well as, the timeline for the work to be complete.
The assessment and repairs “need to be completed by June 30 to meet the insurance deadline,” Falzetta told council.
He reported the total cost of the engineering assessment, as well as, the request for proposals and selecting a contractor should not exceed $33,500.
Falzetta said the cost of the assessment and the repairs will be submitted under the Ontario Clean Water Agency's insurance claim
He is expecting the cost will be covered under the insurance claim, which is why the project wasn’t included in the 2023 budget.
But, “as with any insurance claim they are subject to review by the insurer,” Falzetta.
When asked if the plant will need to be shutdown while the repairs are being done, Falzetta said that his team is still determining the best course of action.
“We know that there will be some work that needs to be done on the line side, to say it simply, so we are looking at maybe hooking up a stand-by generator aside from our generator to have uninterrupted power,” said Falzetta.
“There is going to be a lot of electrical work that’s going to be going on in there and some of it can’t be done live. So, we have to figure away around that.”