Buffalo Pound Water Treatment plant shutdown after power failure

The Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant is back up and running, but some people who get their water from the plant may have to continue boiling their water.

A downed power pole triggered the shutdown on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Crews were on site Wednesday and got the plant up and running by mid-afternoon.

The City of Regina dipped into its reservoirs and wells during the shutdown. The supply for the city is still pressurized so there is no need for people in the Queen City to boil their water. Residents may, however, notice a difference in water clarity over the next few days.

Pat Wilson, with the city’s water works, said this was a good time of year for this to happen.

“There was some rain yesterday, people were not using water heavily. Normally at this time of year, I would expect to be at about 75 megalitres per day. Yesterday was 71, so a little lower than normal. To compare, in the middle of summer on a very, very hot day, we could use 135.”

Though the outage happened Tuesday afternoon, the city didn’t inform residents until Wednesday morning. Wilson said it was because there was more than enough water, and no need for people to change their behaviour.

“We made the choice to continue to operate, we knew that we had the repair under way, and anticipated that it was well-understood repair that would be completed in good time.”

People in rural areas won’t have as easy of a time. Several areas were put under a boil-water advisory, including Disley, Marquis and Parview rural water users, the dufferin water association, and customers getting water from buffalo pound pipelines north and west of the lake.

A notice on the SaskWater website originally said Disley was not under the advisory, along with Tuxford, Marquis, Bethune, and the Qu’Appelle Valley Water Users Association, but that has since been corrected.

According to the Water Security Agency, the boil water advisory could continue for as long as 48 hours as testing is done.