Kitchener Development News - Catch all

[Northern Light]

* note, as per discussions w/UT staff, this thread is to capture news that impacts development in the K-W area, that is not particular to a single project. It is not a broader political thread, posts should be tied to development related issues.

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With that precis, the impetus for this thread is now the much discussed water issues in the region that are having the effect of freezing developments not already approved/under construction.

The Star had an article on the issue, here:

Kitchener-Waterloo’s billion-dollar building industry grinds to a halt as city water shortage fears grow

The region announced in December that it had identified a significant water capacity issue in an area that supplies drinking water to Kitchener, Waterloo, and parts of Cambridge, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

www.thestar.com

From same:

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From a report, here:

https://pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=15481

We learn:

More in the article. But the gist is that this will hold up most development in the near term, and some development in the longer term until there is better clarity on what can be done, will be done and by when.

 

[drum118]

Shouldn't this be in the building form as its has nothing to do with transit???

 

[Northern Light]

Shouldn't this be in the building form as its has nothing to do with transit???

No.

The title of this section is Transit AND Infrastructure. This is about water service which fall into the latter category.

 

[nfitz]

I'd think a thread should cover the entire region. Do we create threads for Cambridge and Waterloo as well - even though they share the same water system, with Mannheim supplying some water to all three cities.

 

[ZEBuilder]

As Northern Light mentioned development is basically stalled out, there are a few SPAs and ZBA/OPAs that have been submitted since the whole problem came to light so it hasn't ground the industry to a complete halt yet, but a few developers are pivoting to other projects (Vive). Now for the overview of the Mannheim system. The Mannheim service area covers all of KW, a portion of Cambridge, Breslau and some smaller towns (Elmira, St Jacobs, etc). There are numerous different treatment plants throughout the area with all of them being fed from groundwater wells. In Kitchener you have the Strange (K10A, K11A, K13, K18, K19), Strasburg (K34 and K36), Greenbrook (K1A, K2A, K4B, K5A, K8), Parkway (K31-33), and Mannheim treatment plants, in Waterloo you have William (W1B, W1C, W2, W3, W15), Erb (W6A, W6B, W7, W8) and then the W10 well. The largest station in the Mannheim service area is the Mannheim TP, which also happens to be the most problematic. It combines a plethora of wells (K21, K22A, K23, K24, K25, K26, K29, K50, K51 and K91-94) with surface water from the Grand River via the Hidden Valley Lift Station and also has the ASR system (Aquifer Storage and Recovery) to store excess treated water in the winter months for use in the summer.

As I eluded to over in the 808 Courtland Ave E thread there's a bunch of projects that can happen to solve some of the issues, they've been known solutions for years, KW just didn't have the need to look into them until a few of the systems started to misbehave in the last year and a bit.

In terms of short term solutions the Region is planning the following with completion targeted for 2027 or earlier:

• Parkway Repairs (actively under construction)
• Greenbrook Repairs
• Greenbrook Modified Operations (changing pumping operations to pump more)
• Mannheim Pilot Project (Mannheim temporary side stream sedimentation system), this is now approved at a cost of $15,000,000 as of the February 6th Special Council Meeting. The report can be found here https://pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=15797

Medium Term, completion targeted 2029-2031:

• New Maple Grove WS (P16 and FSTP1-10)
• Well K-32 side stream treatment (Parkway TP)
• Cam 2W PS (sending surplus water from Middleton system to Mannheim system)
• Greenbrook WTP upgrade (plant replacement)
• Mannheim Dissolved Air Flotation
• New Grand WS (K-70 and K-80 Wells)

Long Term:

• Water Supply Strategy Update
  • The Region is exploring some additional wells in Southwest Kitchener (they've done geotech and hydrogeolgical work already, and have the test wells completed)
  • Pipe to Lake Erie (every time the strategy is updated this gets pushed further back in time but this will be happening sooner than later)

The link to the staff reports on these solutions can be found here:

https://pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=15642

https://pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=15645

When projects start to become obvious I can grab some pictures. The Region also has a substantial sanitary sewer project that they are planning but it would not be surprising if that takes the back burner given its intended for areas affected by the entire water issue.