The Story behind Alberta’s Longest Regional Water System

Established fewer than 15 years ago, the Shirley McClellan Regional Water Services Commission (SMRWSC) is a municipal organization established by the Province of Alberta, and it has developed the longest regional water system in Alberta. The 150 mi, or 250 km, transmission system was constructed in five phases and services over a dozen communities, with a Phase 6 expansion scheduled for completion in September 2021. Rural water distribution systems developed by the Commission’s various member communities have extended over 100 mi (160 km) in that time to create an extensive water network that provides sustainable water servicing to a large geographical area. This paper provides a history of the system from the early days of planning the full network to the buildout of the various phases, the unique pumping station at the heart of the system that services four independent pressure zones, and it discusses how design approaches and construction methodologies have changed over that time based on new and improved materials, the emergence of horizontal directional drilling as a cost effective competitor to open cut installations, and changes to the basic design philosophies behind control networks.