More repairs for troublesome lift station

By Mark Squibb

Paradise town council, in accordance with the new Towns and Local Service Districts Act, held its first public committee of the whole meeting last month.

While most of the items discussed were set aside to be voted on at the next council meeting, council did vote to approve some time sensitive repairs to lift station 10, the notorious pumphouse that suffered a major malfunction in 2019 and another in November of 2024.

Councillor Glen Carew said the malfunction in November caused extensive damage to the lift station’s two, 250 horsepower pumps.

“After many weeks of investigation, working through the state of emergency, and implementing a bypass system, the station is back to operating normally on one, 185 horsepower pump on rental from Xylem,” said Carew. “The proper setup is to have two pumps alternating back and forth during the pumping cycles, as was in place prior to the failure of the station on November 1.”

Carew said that two 250 horsepower pumps damaged during the malfunction have since been assessed by Xylem. The company provided a quote of $27,477, plus HST, to rebuild one pump with parts from a spare pump that the Town had decommissioned years ago.

Ideally, the lift station would function with two, 250 horsepower pumps. However, Carew said that staff have told him that a new 250 horsepower pump is “a thousand dollars a horsepower”— in other words, $250,000— and that renting a 250-horsepower pump was not an option. The 185-horsepower pump rented from Xylem, working in tandem with a repaired 250 horsepower pump, would make for an adequate substitution.

Council gave staff the greenlight to move ahead with the repairs in the interest of time.

Repairs will take about a week or two.

The new lift station is expected to be commissioned and come online this year.