Lloydminster’s only water treatment clarifier is getting a full overhaul, and council approved the $2.5-million contract Monday to make it happen.
The unit has been running on original components since it was commissioned in 1984. Partial repairs were completed in 2001 and 2006, but the core mechanism has never been fully rehabilitated – until now.
For most residents, the clarifier is an invisible piece of infrastructure. Coun. Michele Charles Gustafson offered some perspective on what it actually does.
“It looks like your KitchenAid mixer, with the big arm in the middle that rolls the water around so that the big dirt falls to the bottom, the middle dirt falls to the middle, and then the top – the clarifier rolls over and goes into the clarifying other mixer that cleans everything,” Charles Gustafson said.
It is, she noted, the only one the city has.
“This is an urgent thing,” she said.
Council awarded the rehabilitation contract to Maple Reinders Constructors Limited at $2,306,000 excluding GST. A 10 per cent contingency of $230,600 was also approved. An additional $385,000 was pulled from the Water and Wastewater Capital Reserve to cover the gap between the project’s original budget and final tender price.
The total project cost is approximately $3.38 million.
City infrastructure manager Jamie Hopko told council the higher-than-estimated price reflects current construction market conditions.
A March 2025 engineering estimate from Stantec Consulting put the project at approximately $2.2 million. Hopko said the variance came down to contractor risk pricing across several areas, including process mechanical work and concrete rehabilitation.
Three contractors submitted bids. Maple Reinders came in lowest.
The rehabilitation will include replacing the clarifier drive mechanism, installing tube settlers, replacing sludge pumps and associated piping, concrete work, a new cathodic protection system, and recoating of interior metal components.
Work is scheduled to run from Oct. 15 to April 15 – a window chosen because raw water quality is at its best and temperatures support the work. During that period, the plant will use a process called assisted direct filtration, bypassing the clarifier while keeping water service running without interruption.
Hopko said the city has drained and inspected the unit twice in recent years, including a more invasive assessment in 2025 that included concrete coring to check structural integrity.
“Am I confident that we can operate the facility with no shutdowns? 100 per cent,” Hopko said. “Is there anything that’s going to be unexpected? That’s a little tough question.”
He added the contingency is there precisely for that reason.
The contract requires the work to be completed within the four-month window. Hopko said clauses were built in to enforce that timeline.
Any unused contingency funds will be returned to the reserve.
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