The Wheatland Regional Corporation (WRC) continues its positive momentum as it begins to lay the groundwork for its third phase, delivering water to the Redland and Rosebud area.

The regional water utility has made great strides in its short history to bring a reliable potable water supply to the Wheatland area. This includes a major project for diversion and storage from the Western Irrigation District, supplied by the Bow River, upgrades to a water treatment plant at Standard and delivery of water to Gleichen, Standard, and Rockyford.

Earlier this summer they received funding for the third phase.

“We were notified about a month ago, so we are very excited about extending the line from Rockyford to Rosebud,” said chairman of WRC, Darcy Burke.

He says there could be a lot of interest in the line.

“There is a lot of potential for rural tie in, the water quality on the north side of Rockyford and the rural area, down through Redland is not the greatest. There has always been a desire from those rural folks to find an alternative source of drinking water,” he said.

The WRC has posted a short survey on its website for potential users in the area to fill out in order for the utility to gauge interest in phase 3 of the project.

Right now we are talking to potential rural users to determine the route and we will be moving forward with MPE Engineering as our general contractor on the engineering side of things,” said Burke. “The survey will be open this summer and in the fall we will start the design phase and move forward with construction and completion in 2020.”

The funds were granted through the Water for Life Program, and Wheatland County is a funding partner, providing the municipal portion of the funding.

“We are very impressed with the speed of the funding for the second and third phases of the project, well ahead of what I ever thought would be happening. Eventually, we will see Phase 4, the line extend to Hussar and who knows, that may come sooner than any of us were thinking,” said Burke.