With provincial “Leave to Commence” for the Church Road well field not in place as of June 28, the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) has more paperwork to complete to add site water to its Chapman system. In a June 22 board meeting, staff stated the SCRD's target date to have that capacity was June 30 (past Coast Reporter deadline).
Chris Harvey is the owner of one of the project’s contractors, CHB Services. He invited Coast Reporter to the site on June 27.
He explained that “substantial completion” for the project has not been signed off by the local government. The lack of project sign-off also means that the new pumphouse at 850 Fisher Road does not have its final occupancy permit from the SCRD building department.
SCRD communications department stated in a June 28 email “both the leave to commence from the Province of BC and substantial completion are imminent” but no date specifics or estimates were provided.
Contractor's concerns
While proud of the work that has been done and confident that all components are ready to come online, Harvey indicated he has concerns with the electrical design of the system. An electrical filter has been ordered but not yet been installed. In his view, while the plant can operate without it and did so during the 80-hour run test completed on June 1, operating without that filter over an extended period could create problems for the system pumps and potentially the warranty on those components.
That’s troubling for Harvey as he said it may increase costs down the line. “I’m not just a contractor, I’m an SCRD taxpayer, too,” he said.
The need to access water from the site appears to be looming with Environment Canada’s seven day weather forecast for the area predicting no rainfall and temperature highs ranging from 22 to 28 degrees.
The Chapman Water system remains on Stage One water restrictions as of June 28. The SCRD has stated it would be bringing the well field online before Stage Two was called for that portion of its water supply area.
A busy area
The project area was a hub of activity on June 27. Seven members of Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) water operations staff who had not been involved in previous training sessions were on site for a four-hour operational briefing.
On adjacent Elphinstone Avenue, survey work was underway. The individual performing those duties identified himself as working with a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure contractor and said he was gathering data for the design phase of a road repair/improvement project.
