By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
City officials in Sutton expressed relief and satisfaction after the release of a study showing that the town’s water table is on stronger footing than expected.
The study carried out by independent hydrogeology firm LNA, which takes into account the impact of a potential drought, found that the water table that currently supplies the Academy well in the Village sector can safely supply up to three times more water per day than is currently tapped from it. If a well is installed at the spring near Route 215, more than 5.5 times more water per day can be safely extracted.
Mayor Robert Benoît and director general Pascal Smith presented the report on Dec. 5 at a public meeting attended by about 50 members of the public, current and former councillors and officials from the city’s urban planning, public works and public safety departments.
“We have good news – we no longer fear water shortages in Sutton. In terms of quantity, we have plenty,” said Smith. “We need to know how much there is and what we should do with it. We don’t have all the answers yet.”
The difficulty lies with the town’s geography and existing water infrastructure. Sutton has two separate water networks – one using groundwater in the Village sector and one supplying the Montagne sector from surrounding lakes. Each one serves around 1100 homes. For several years, Sutton has been grappling both with periodic water shortages, particularly in the Montagne sector, and an acute housing shortage. In April 2022, Benoît announced a moratorium on construction in the Montagne sector to relieve pressure on the water supply. A subsequent study found that the Montagne sector didn’t have any significant water reserves of its own.
Smith noted that 13 studies on the water supply had been carried out in the past 40 years, mostly focusing on how to increase the flow of water in the Montagne network. The LNA study, he said, “looked at things from a different angle,” considering the capacity of the current Village groundwater supply to supply the whole town.
Over the next several years, the city plans to invest $7-10 million in a 2,350-metre pipeline and pump system to pipe water to the sector from the village and provide 258 homes with municipal water service. The Mont Sutton chalet and the Huttopia campground would also be connected to the network. Initial engineering studies are expected to begin next year.
In the longer term, the city is considering the installation of 1,200 metres of additional pipeline, one additional booster pump and one reservoir at the top of Chemin Boulanger, which would service 741 additional homes and cost an additional estimated $10 million. Ultimately, more than 80 per cent of the current Montagne network could be covered by the Village network once work is complete.
“This is a big number, and we would have to double the debt of the city…so we need to find sources of funding for that,” said Benoît, alluding to government subsidies and user fees. The municipality would most likely have to take out a loan to cover costs, which would lead to a bylaw and a potential referendum. The mayor said he expected “a big debate” in the years to come around the kind of development that could, or should, take place in the Montagne sector.
The moratorium is expected to remain in place, at least in part, until construction of the pipeline project or projects is completed. “Water availability in the mountains, particularly in the Maple sector, is still not sufficient to supply new construction. On the other hand, in the Academy sector, which is served by individual wells, it would be possible to relax some of the more restrictive zoning and subdivision measures, provided that the natural recharge of water to the village’s water table is preserved,” a city information document states. “We know we have a lot of water; now we have to know how to protect it,” summarized Claude Théberge, director of public works for Sutton.
The initial studies presented last week cost the city about $200,000 over two and a half years.