There are three main water supply areas around the SYSCO site:

1. Dumaresq Lake well field
2. Sydney River water supply
3. Grand Lake water supply.

Sydney, Whitney Pier, Ashby and Hardwood Hill (Supply Area 1, Figure 2.4) are currently supplied by an aquifer-fed well field located near Dumaresq Lake, ap-proximately 5 kilometres along the Louisburg Highway from Highway 125. The calculated safe-yield of this water supply is 6 million gallons per day (gpd), although the Municipality only allows the removal of 3.8 million gpd to prevent the draw-down of wells in the surrounding area. Water from this well-field is piped approximately 3 kilometres to a treatment facility near the old reservoir, where the water is treated before being piped into the communities.

The Sydney River water supply services to the communities of Coxheath and Sydney River, as well as providing the SYSCO property with process water via a 24” supply line. The supply line to SYSCO was designed to carry 4-5 million gpd, although since the closure of the mill, the demand for water at SYSCO has been minimal. Complicating matters is the fact that this 24” line to SYSCO also supplies drinking water to approximately 100 to 125 commercial and residential users located in Sydney and Sydney River. These customers are billed monthly for their water consumption by SYSCO.

The number of customers using this system may be as high as 200 due to illegal feeds tapped into the line. In order to ensure the water quality provided to these customers, the Sydney River pumping station currently pumps 2.5 million gpd to the SYSCO site, most of which is directly discharged into the harbour. This volume of pumping is necessary to ensure that the water in the pipe does not stagnate, thereby allowing the growth of bacteria.

CBRM is in the process of building new supply lines to water customers currently feeding off the SYSCO line. In the future, their needs will be provided by the Du-maresq Lake well field. All users should be transferred off the SYSCO line by 2005. At this point, CBRM would like to de-activate the Sydney River as a municipal water supply, because the quality of water from this surface supply will be hard to protect as development continues in the future.

The Grand Lake supply is the old water supply for SYSCO, although the pipeline itself has been derelict for a number of years. Given the relatively low level of development within the Grand Lake watershed, CBRM is evaluating the potential of this area as a future potable water source, which would allow the elimination of the Sydney River water supply. Grand Lake is partially protected, as the Province and CBRM own the majority of the land surrounding the lake (although the up-stream drainage basin is not protected).

It is proposed that in the future, Grand Lake could supply the Whitney Pier area. The proposed development of the Grand Lake water supply would include a treatment facility in Whitney Pier and a transmission line that would pass within several thousand feet of the former SYSCO property. A branch from the transmission line (before treatment) could potentially supply the SYSCO site with process water, (depending upon volumes required), and any potable water demand could be supplied from the treated water supply.

Regardless of CBRM’s decision on their water supplies and distribution systems, the 24” line from Sydney River does not need to be removed. The line, pumping station, and treatment facilities are all owned and operated by SYSCO. While in the near future CBRM will not have a need for this system from a residential supply perspective, its value as a supply of industrial process water is significant.

Routing a potable water source to new uses on the SYSCO site is possible, whether Whitney Pier is supplied from Grand Lake or CBRM’s well field. The estimated cost to install a pumping station and intake at Grand Lake, as well as the transmission and treatment system for approximately 1 million gpd, is $6-8 million. From start to finish, once funding commitments are in place, construction would take approximately 2.5 years.