WCW24

The City of Portage la Prairie, Water Treatment Plant supplies an average of 24 million litres per day to the City of Portage, three regional water systems, and to several local large food processing industries. Raw water is obtained from the Portage Reservoir, which is a small water impoundment on the Assiniboine River. This impoundment was created from the construction of a dam control structure on the Assiniboine River, which connects with the Red River in Winnipeg; and the creation of a flood control spillway structure named the Assiniboine River Diversion which directs water, in times of flood, into a man-made diversion channel running to Lake Manitoba. During the spring melt in 2023 the Assiniboine River provided the City of Portage la Prairie, Water Treatment Plant with a "perfect storm" of issues arising from its raw water intake. These problems reduced the volume of water available for treatment in the facility and resulted in temporary water curtailments for local industry. This session will detail from an operations perspective what the conditions were that led to this previously unseen problem, how the conditions affected the plant and distribution system, and how the facility's resilient staff overcame them. The presentation will conclude with a brief summary of future construction plans for the facility, highlighting the new intake structure.