The city says that costs include engineering, construction, and contingency and take into account inflation. Pictured: Woodward Water Treatment Plant. Photo Credit: City of Hamilton.
The City of Hamilton is set to move forward with a massive 10-year $543 million project to upgrade the municipality’s Woodward Water Treatment Plant.
The plant was constructed in 1931 and expanded in the late 1950s, but the city’s Waterworks Asset Management Plan (2022) identified the condition of the plant as “poor.”
As such, the city is planning for upgrades, called the Water Treatment Plant Phase 2A and 2B Projects, which will cost $335 million and $208 million respectively over the next 10 years ($543 million total).
The city says that costs include engineering, construction, and contingency and take into account inflation.
The plant provides potable drinking water and fire protection to the City of Hamilton and is the only Water Treatment Plant serving the city, providing water to close to 570,000 residents.
The plant has a rated capacity of 909 million litres per day.
However, Hamilton’s population is expected to grow to at least 820,000 people by 2051.
The project should not be confused with the recently completed $340 million upgrades to the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant which is located on the same property as the drinking water plant.
The city says that the Phase 2A and 2B Projects are meant to address “the poor asset condition, resolve process capacity restrictions, and provide a resilient water treatment system and robust production process, while utilizing best available technologies.”
Hamilton City Council voted in May to hire four new permanent full-time Hamilton Water Divisional staff to deliver the Woodward Water Treatment Plant Phase 2 Upgrades Capital Program.
Those staff are a Manager for the Water Treatment Plant Capital Program, a Senior Project Manager, a Project Manager, and an Engineering Technologist.
Council also approved the hiring of three permanent full-time employees in 2025 to provide operational support for the upgrades.
The current water treatment process includes intake chlorination, screening, pre-chlorination, coagulation, flocculation, conventional gravity sedimentation, granular activated carbon filtration, post-filter followed by fluoridation, and ortho-phosphate addition.
Phase 2A upgrades are expected to take from 2025 to 2027 to design and from 2028 to 2032 to construct and include filter building components, the installation of an ultra-violet (UV) disinfection system, a new filter backwash system, and the construction of a new chlorine disinfection building.
The city says that UV disinfection will provide “an extra barrier against pathogens,” reduce the quantity of chlorine needed for disinfection, and help preserve process equipment since less chemicals will be needed.
Phase 2B upgrades are expected to take from 2029 to 2031 to design and from 2032 to 2035 to construct and include changes to the low lift pumping station and the creation of a new superstructure for the pre-treatment process.
A city report says that Phase 2A is the “non-growth component of the upgrades” and is funded from the city’s water revenues.
Meanwhile, Phase 2B is the “growth component” of the upgrades and is funded by Development Charges.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
