With heavy machinery working away in the background the official sod turning was undertaken in Turin Friday for an infrastructure project that will upgrade both water and waste water services in the hamlet.
MP Rick Casson on behalf of the federal government, MLA Barry McFarland on behalf of the provincial government and Coun. Morris Zeinstra on behalf of the County of Lethbridge all took shovels in hand to turn sod on a three-prong funded project in the neighbourhood of $5 million.
The funding will cover installation of new waterlines in the community plus a new collection and treatment facility for wastewater. Turin is already supplied with City of Lethbridge water via the county’s water line but water pressure has been an issue for local residents as the existing water lines were too old to handle the pressure generated by the new county water line.
A high water table has also been a long standing problem for the community which will also be mediated by the new project. The private septic fields used by the 100 residences of the hamlet often become over saturated particularly during heavy rainfalls.
“Today’s groundbreaking ceremony demonstrates that Canada’s Economic Action Plan is working to aid communities such as Turin to move into the future with modern infrastructure that supports regional growth and prosperity,” said Casson.
“This is huge for this area,” said Michel Savard, the county’s Director of Municipal Services.
He said the project will not only provide the hamlet with reliable water lines, it will also provide Turin with increased fire protection as fire hydrants are being installed as part of the project.
With a new wastewater collection system and a sewer lagoon for treatment the septic fields will be decommissioned.
“There is additional room for future development,” he said.
Under application for the project, the county was approved for funding that also covered reasonable growth. With the new water and wastewater systems in place Turin could see future residential development.
Casson said the key to getting the project underway was the three-way cooperation between the federal, provincial and municipal governments.
“The county was in a position to take part.”
McFarland said he knows water and wastewater have both been issue for Turin for a number of years but without federal and provincial funding assistance the price tag to fix the problems was just to high for the county to undertake on its own.
“It will be money well spent over the years.”
For Zeinstra, who claims Turin as part of Division 7 which he represents on county council, the funding could not have come at a better time.
“It’s probably long overdue and I’m glad it finally came through.”
He said the community had some real health concerns with the saturation of the septic fields and now the water and wastewater projects will certainly improve the quality of life in Turin.