WCW26

The Southport Fire Pump Replacement project involved upgrading the municipality's fire protection system by replacing a diesel-powered fire pump with an electric fire pump and generator. The project was driven by the need to resolve deteriorating operational output and, critically, to enhance public drinking water safety. By removing the old diesel-powered fire pump located above the treated water storage reservoirs, the replacement system eliminated a substantial contamination risk, aligning with best practices for drinking water safety. The new pump was required to be an NFPA 20 rated system to provide fire protection for numerous airport hangers, industrial facilities, and commercial buildings (as mandated by insurance requirements). Unlike typical fire pump installations, this fire pump was directly integrated into the potable water distribution network. This unusual configuration necessitated that all components and appurtenances (including the pump, piping, and valves) meet NSF 61 requirements for materials in contact with drinking water. The project's primary technical challenge was the final calibration and programming required to balance fire pump operation with the existing distribution pump flow.

Eastern Pressure Solution - Abstract -Final.pdf

The City of Regina performs proactive assessment and renewal of the City's water, wastewater, and storm sewer linear networks.  From 2015 to 2024, 60 km of water and trunk mains were either rehabilitated by Cured In Place Plastic Pipe (CIPP) lining or replaced using pipe bursting, horizontal direction drilling (HDD), and traditional open cut methods.  During the same period, 475 km of sanitary mains and trunks were cleaned and inspected, and 125 km were rehabilitated by CIPP lining.  This presentation attempts to quantify the impact of these proactive programs by examining a variety of parameters including water demands and sewage flows, water losses, and system response during rainfall events. 

This presentation explores business continuity planning and emergency response from a Distribution and Collection perspective. It covers strategies for managing transmission line failures within Aquatera’s regional system, identifying single points of failure, and building redundancy into distribution and collection networks. The session will also highlight approaches for rapid water quality response during contamination events or system disruptions, and how preventative maintenance and operational planning support both reliability and emergency readiness.

The City of Saskatoon, with Hamm Construction Ltd. as the main contractor, completed a non‑destructive condition assessment of the 750‑mm 4th Avenue Primary Watermain in September 2025. Pure Technologies, a Xylem brand, conducted a depressurized inspection using the tethered electromagnetic platform to evaluate the condition of prestressing wires in prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP). A total of 672 metres of pipe, 101 individual pipe sections were inspected, and electromagnetic data was analyzed to identify anomalies associated with broken wire wraps. In the absence of as-built records or manufacturer specifications, calibration relied on mathematical modelling informed by historical data and industry expertise. 
 
The project highlights the value of advanced robotics‑enabled condition assessment technologies in providing municipalities with actionable data, improving risk‑based decision‑making, and supporting system reliability for aging PCCP transmission mains.

Every year, thousands of miles of waterlines are installed in North America through new projects and replacement of aging infrastructure. Decisions on prioritizing pipeline replacement projects are based on the age of the water network and its performance. In addition, decisions on which materials to use for replacing aging infrastructure are based on relative performance and cost.
Since the initial cost does not represent the true value of the water pipeline, asset managers give preference to strength, durability, and life cycle cost of their water and wastewater pipelines.
DIPRA’s extensive research in corrosion protection led to a comprehensive risk-based model, which identifies several asset management strategies presently in use in North America, dealing with the potential for external and internal corrosion of buried Ductile iron pipelines.
In this Presentation, we will discuss the significant benefits that could be derived by utility owners if they consider to design, operate and maintain their infrastructure using these strategies, ultimately resulting in fewer unplanned repairs, and in the long term, a lower total cost of operation.

Rural water networks present a unique modelling challenge: long transmission distances, low system pressures, variable usage patterns, and the use of private cisterns create demand behaviors that differ significantly from conventional municipal systems. Traditional hydraulic modelling approaches—built around predictable diurnal curves and instantaneous customer demand—often fail to capture the intermittent, batch‑draw patterns of cistern‑supplied users. As a result, model results, pressure prediction, and operational capacity can be unreliable.
 
This presentation explores the development and refinement of a hydraulic model for a low‑pressure rural distribution system owned by Intervalley Water Inc. and supplied by the Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant and SaskWater. The system, operating with pressures as low as 20 psi, relies on customer storage rather than direct supply, creating hydraulically stable but operationally complex conditions. Model results are further skewed by several high-demand livestock agriculture operations. Through a series of targeted innovations— including pressure logging campaigns (both short and long term), improved zone-specific peaking factors based on actual water use, and handheld GPS surveyed coordinates to support GIS records— the model’s accuracy has improved enough to avoid lengthy approval processes for the addition of new users.
 
Attendees will learn how these innovative modelling strategies help better capture real‑world behavior in low‑pressure networks, leading to more reliable system optimization, capital planning, and operational decision‑making. The session will provide practical guidance, lessons learned, and a replicable workflow for water professionals working with unconventional or rural distribution systems.

The City’s Small Diameter Watermain Renewal Program is focused on modernizing aging residential infrastructure. However, successful delivery involves far more than pipe replacement. This joint City–AECOM presentation would provide insight into how projects are prioritized, designed, & constructed, and what contractors, consultants, and suppliers should understand to position themselves for future renewal work.
 
The presentation would highlight practical insights into:

• Risk-based infrastructure renewal 
• Program delivery strategies
• Industry collaboration opportunities
• Construction considerations in residential corridors

Lagoons remain the backbone of wastewater treatment infrastructure for many small and medium sized prairie communities due to their simplicity and cost-effectiveness. However, meeting increasingly stringent effluent nutrient limits, especially during cold weather, poses a significant challenge at lagoon facilities. This presentation explores approaches to post-lagoon nitrification, ammonia and phosphorus removal tailored to the unique climatic and operational constraints of the Canadian prairies. We draw on recent experience on advanced lagoon system projects including implementing post-lagoon moving bed bioreactors (MBBRs) to examine how nutrient removal unit processes can be retrofitted to existing lagoons and function effectively in low temperatures. The session will highlight practical design considerations and lessons learned.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is rapidly evolving from a billing-focused technology into a foundational data source for utility-wide operational intelligence. As utilities expand metering programs and pursue digital transformation initiatives, the next generation of AMI—AMI 2.0—enables organizations to leverage high-resolution consumption data to address persistent challenges such as non-revenue water, leak detection, and system inflow and infiltration (I&I) awareness.


By integrating AMI data with operational, hydraulic, and environmental datasets, Utilities can generate actionable insights across both customer and system levels. By integrating AMI data with operational, hydraulic, and environmental datasets, Utilities can generate actionable insights across both customer and system levels. Influenced by implementation work with the City of Immokalee, Florida, this approach demonstrates how continuous meter analytics can identify abnormal flow patterns, persistent consumption, and nighttime flow conditions that indicate leaks or operational inefficiencies.  When aggregated and contextualized, meter data also provides valuable system-level indicators that help utilities better understand flow anomalies and potential I&I impacts, enabling more targeted investigation and response.


AMI 2.0 shifts the role of smart meters from passive measurement devices ('cash registers') to active components of a utility’s digital ecosystem. By combining advanced analytics, data integration, and scalable enterprise architecture, utilities can move beyond reactive workflows toward proactive operations that improve water accountability, optimize field resources, and strengthen infrastructure planning.


As water metering adoption accelerates across regions such as Western Canada, utilities have an opportunity to design programs that maximize long-term value from the outset. Leveraging AMI data for both leak detection and broader system intelligence supports improved resiliency, operational efficiency, and measurable return on investment while establishing a scalable foundation for future analytics and AI-driven applications.