The Town of Coaldale is now equipped to accommodate the next two decades of growth with the reopening of its upgraded wastewater lagoon facility. The $12.5 million project was completed to meet wastewater effluent regulations from the federal and provincial governments and set the community up for growth, according to mayor Jack Van Rijn.
“With the capacity that we have, we can easily get up to a population of 15–20 thousand people and that’ll take 10–20 years to get up that high. So at least now we have the capacity that we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” he said. “Now we can be open for business for industry that wants to come to Coaldale.”
Van Rijn said private investors are preparing to build a new industrial park in the town and this upgrade will make it possible. The next major step in water infrastructure is to work with regional partners on more ways to get potable water, according to the mayor.
“Coaldale had the opportunity to just sit back and be a bedroom community of Lethbridge, but they chose not to — they chose to be a business friendly community. Because of that, they need to have growth in their wastewater treatment,” said Grant Hunter, MLA for Cardston Taber Warner. “There has been some talk in the past about the forgotten south, well I think that in the last three years we have certainly seen that there is no such thing as the forgotten south anymore. We have had a lot of growth in the agrifood processing corridor between Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, there’s lots of work still to be done but Coaldale is going to be right at the centre.”
The project was funded in part by the province with a $4.4 million contribution, the rest was funded by the town.
