Halifax Regional Water Commission

The Halifax Regional Water Commission (HRWC) is a Canadian water utility in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality that supplies potable water and fire protection water to the urban core, as well as several isolated smaller systems in the rural areas of the municipality.

History

The HRWC was formed on April 1,1996 combining the water utilies of the city of Dartmouth, the city of Halifax and
Municipality of the County of Halifax.

Before amalgamation, the Dartmouth water utility supplied the city of Dartmouth as well as the adjacent county communities of Eastern Passage, Westphal, and Cole Harbour from the Lemont Lake watershed east of the city. The Halifax water utility supplied the city of Halifax and the town of Bedford from the Pockwock Lake watershed west of the city.

The Municipality of the County of Halifax water utility supplied the communities of Lower Sackville, Waverley and Middle Musquodoboit.

ystem

* 2 large water treatment plants
**Lake Major was commissioned in 1999 and uses a sedimentation with multi media filtration procees. Its plant capacity is 90 ML/day (20 Million igpm) and serves the communities of Dartmouth, Eastern Passage, Cole Harbour and Westphal.
** Pockwock Lake was commissioned in 1977 and uses a direct dual media filtration process. Its plant capacity is 220 ML/day (50 Million igpm) and serves the communities of Halifax, Bedford, Lower Sackville, Fall River, Waverley and Timberlea.

*8 isolated systems
**Miller Lake was commissioned in 2002 and serves Fall River.
**Silver Sands was commissioned in 1999 and serves Cow Bay.
**Churchill Estates was commissioned in 1992 and serves Herring Cove.
**Lively was commissioned in 1982 and serves Middle Sackville.
**North Preston was commissioned in 1982 and serves North Preston.
**Middle Musquodoboit was commissioned in 1982 and serves Middle Musquodoboit.
**Collins Park was commissioned in 1982 and serves Wellington
**Five Island Lake was commissioned in 1982 and serves Five Island Lake

*16 storage reservoirs
* 1,229 km of distribution mains
* 7,137 fire hydrants
* 73,897 customers

Other facts

* A water main runs beneath the road deck of the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge and connects the systems on the east and west sides of Halifax Harbour (Lake Major and Pockwock respectively).
* HRWC crews replace 4.5 km of pipe annually.
* HRWC crews are world leaders in detecting leaks within the system, thus saving money for costly treatment, as well as reducing HRWC demands on its watersheds.

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