Drinking water
The Town's Operations and Public Works department ensures the efficient and effective delivery of clean drinking water to our community. Golden's water is collected from a ground water aquifier. Aquifers can be natural filters that trap sediment and pathogens to provide natural purification of the ground water flowing through them. In Golden’s case, our water quality is excellent and doesn’t require filtration or chemical treatments to remove contaminants.
The Town of Golden's water system is comprised of:
- Four groundwater wells with a combined total design pumping capacity of 76 litres per second.
- Five reservoirs with a total storage capacity of about 6.96 Mega Litres.
Operations staff maintain approximately 39 kilometres of water pipes with ongoing work to protect our water with a robust groundwater protection program. Crews are ready to respond and address service interruptions 24 hours a day.
Water Services projects
- A fifth well was drilled at Dogwood Parkin fall 2023. Work will continue in 2024 and possibly in 2025 with well testing, licensing and construction of a well building.
- In 2023, a new watermain was installed as part of the 6th Street North road renewal project to increase fire flow capacity in the downtown core.
- 2024 will be the final year of a 5-year program of remote water system communications/control equipment modernizing.
- In 2024, the Town received funding through the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund under the Disaster Risk Reduction-Climate Adaptation an Integrated Water Plan for the community water supply and distribution system will be completed. Work will also continue with the second year of a 3-year water system leak detection program.
Annual Drinking Water Reports:
Sewer Services
All of the water that is flushed down toilets, drained from bathtubs and sinks or used to wash clothes, drains into the sewage collection system.
The Town's sewer system is comprised of seven lift stations and one sewage treatment plant, with a collection system capacity to process 4251 cubic metres per day of effluent. Operations staff is responsible for the maintenance of approximately 36 kilometres of sewer lines.
The effluent treatment process includes UV disinfection, a chemical free process, that discharges high quality effluent that is environmentally friendly. The Town of Golden consistently meets or exceeds permit requirements for effluent that is discharged from the sewage treatment facility.
Sewer Services projects
- In 2023 an over-capacity sanitary main adjacent to Station Avenue was replaced. This project was majority funded through our Development Cost Charge program.
- In 2024, work will continue on the Integrated Sanitary Sewer Upgrades project, this includes improvements and renewals at the sewage treatment plant and some sanitary mains funded through a $1,085,651 grant from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
- Other projects continuing in 2024 will include the replacement of the Edelweiss sanitary lift station and completion of the Master Sanitary Plan Update for the community sewer collection system.
- 2024 will also mark the final year of a 5-year program of remote sewer system communications/control equipment modernizing.