Robert Hart water treatment plant
History
Huntingdon’s water treatment plant was initially built in 1918, though substantial improvements were made in the 1970s in order to increase its processing capacity. The automation of the plant was completed in June of 2003. This automation allows the automatic operation of the plant from the control station and central monitoring, all while maintaining the ability to operate each piece of equipment on local manual mode.
On April 6th, 2009, City Council ruled by by-law 09-04-06-1789 that the filtration plant of the City would be renamed Robert Hart Filtration Plant, in honor of the exemplary work by Robert Hart who held the position of Plant Manager from 1985 up until 2008.
Châteauhuay river
Huntingdon’s water treatment plant is fed by the Châteauguay River. The catchment area of the river drains an area of approximately 2,543 km2 stretching from the state of New York to Lake St. Louis. It rises in Upper Chateauguay Lake, located in the state of New York (United States), to flow some 120 kilometers away into the St. Lawrence River. Nearly 57% of the watershed is in Quebec while 43% is in the United States. The population is mainly concentrated in the northern part of the watershed, or the St. Lawrence lowlands located mostly in Quebec. The area is predominantly occupied by agriculture (59.7% ) and forest (33.1%).
Production capacity
The water treatment plant in Huntingdon was initially designed to supply its residential, commercial, institutional and industrial population, with particular consideration of the territory’s textile mills. Before the closure of the textile plants in 2004, the city was distributing an average of 2.5 million m3 of water per year, of which 40% was destined to industrial use.
The production capacity of retained water was designed for 7,466,075 m3 / year or 20,455 m3 / day (4.5 million gallons / day). To anticipate all eventualities and thus meet the needs of a changing population, it has been established that the City can distribute 80% of its production capacity of drinking water, or 5,972,860 m3 / year or 16,364 m3 / day (3.6 million gallons / day). The production of current water being 1,182,990 m3 / year, the City can easily produce 4,789,870 m3 / year or an additional13,123 m3 / day (2,887,000 gallons / Day).
Water treated at Huntingdon’s plant fully complies with the requirements of the RQEP.
Inter-municipal agreement
An inter-municipal agreement was reached between the City of Huntingdon and the municipalities of Godmanchester and Hinchinbrooke aiming to supply water to a portion of the citizens of the two municipalities.