Wells to be drilled at edge of road allowance

By Jamie Rieger
The project manager for the a regional water system that will eventually pipe water to Foremost, Etzikom, Manyberries, and Skiff attended the Feb. 24 County of Forty Mile council meeting to discuss where to locate the next two wells to be drilled.
“As of Friday (Feb. 19), we have screened in three wells, with flow testing on well #1 and production tests on wells 2 and 3 being done consecutively,” said Luke Schoening, project manager for MPE. “With well #1, we did not get as good of a yield as we had hoped. It is sustainable, but we will still need nine wells for the flow needed for the 25-year design.”
The project calls for up to nine wells to meet future water demands in the region, with approximately 600 meters separating each well in an area west and north of Foremost.
“At nine wells, we get 100 percent of the 25-year design for Foremost, Manyberries, Etzikom, and Skiff. Five wells, we have enough water for everybody now.” said Schoening. “We try not to back off from growth potentials.”
Schoening indicated to council that MPE preferred putting wells 4 and 5 onto county-controlled land so they would not have to buy any easements and added that the first two wells are also on road allowances.
“Initially, we did not want to go this far west, but our choices now are putting them onto road allowances or purchasing right-of-ways from the land owner, which is fine, but there would be a little more work involved,” he said. “Are you guys comfortable with these wells going onto road allowances?”
Schoening said the pipe, as well as power lines, would be underground with a two-and-a-half meter under-grade.
“We will feed low-grade power to each well from a control building and the power and pipe would go into the same trench,” he said, adding that it would be possible for the trenches to be dug deeper to allow for any potential future development.
“We try to put pipe in on road allowances whenever we can and it can be placed so it would not be a barrier. Going a little deeper would only raise the cost slightly,” said Schoening.
Council agreed that wells #4 and #5 could be placed right at the edge of the road allowance and one meter deeper than initially planned.