Wheatland County council provided its support in regards to a request from a group of residents from the community of Redland to establish potable water connections to the Wheatland Regional Corporation (WRC) regional waterline for individual residents during the regular Tuesday, September 5 council meeting.
Council also directed administration to communicate this support with WRC, which is the organization in charge of the regional waterline.
WRC was formed in 2016 when the villages of Hussar, Rockyford, and Standard, as well as the surrounding municipality of Wheatland County created its regional partnership, originally called the Wheatland Regional Water Partnership, to investigate brining potable water supply to the three village municipalities, as well as the hamlets of Gleichen and Rosebud.
Since then, the project has seen an agreement with the Western Irrigation District (WID) to supply water, upgrades to the raw water pipes and treatment plant in Standard, and connection to the village of Rockyford and hamlets of Rosebud and Gleichen.
Construction of Phase 3 of the project, which supplied water to Rosebud, saw the waterline built through the boundary of Redland by December 2020. After completion of this phase of the project, the Village of Hussar made the decision to withdraw from the WRC board, citing an unforeseeable need for regional water in the community; however, this decision has since been retracted.
Despite the proximity of the regional line to the community, residents were not connected and a public engagement was held in October 2022 to outline potential costs for residents. The total project cost to the connect the community to the water line was estimated at some $477,301, which would be paid through a Local Improvement Tax on 10 property parcels which would benefit from connection over a 20 year period; this figure did not include an estimated $30,000 for each resident to connect individually to the line.
However, residents were concerned over the costs of individual connection.
Both the county and WRC have received communications from several Redland residents inquiring about installation of the potable water service to serve a total of six properties.
Council directed administration to communicate with WRC, including in regards to any future servicing plans for the area, and to inform WRC of the county’s support for individual residents in Redland to connect to the water service.
