Upper Hammonds Plains Water Booster Station

Project Description
The community of Upper Hammonds Plains contains Pockwock Lake and the Pockwock Lake Regional Water Treatment Plant. Despite close proximity to the source of the public water system, the community did not have access to the Pockwock water system and relied on private wells for water supply. With the contamination of several of these wells, members of the community lobbied all three levels of government for the right to be connected to the public water supply, which has its origins in their community. A long single-feed distribution main was planned to service the community.

Services Provided
Halifax Regional Water Commission retained Terrain Group to provide water system modelling analysis and detail design of the water booster station. The modelling exercise determined optimum and recommended locations for the booster pumping station and the creation of a high-pressure zone.

The initial design included fire flow capability and standby power. An engineering design was completed to address the design requirements. Given the budget constraints, the system was remodelled for domestic flow enabling a downsizing of the watermain and booster station. The design was revised to reflect the resized booster station.

The pumping system selected utilizes a variable frequency drive (VFD) controller. Each pump is capable of handling 0 to 100% of the full design flow. Use of the VFD will provide long-term operating cost savings and reduce the cyclical water hammer effects caused by conventional start/stop operations of a triplex pump system.