Lake Wabamun Water Treatment Facility

TransAlta's operations are one of many factors that affect the water level of Lake Wabamun, located 70 kilometres west of Edmonton, Alberta. Other impacts include precipitation, surface run-off, ground water flows and natural evaporation.

TransAlta built the Wabamun Lake Water Treatment Plant next to the Sundance power plant in 1997 to mitigate our operations' historic and ongoing effect on lake levels. Subsequently, and based on input from local stakeholders, we expanded our output of water to the lake with the construction of an additional plant that began operation in May 2002, to ensure we met our license requirements.

On January 1, 2007 TransAlta successfully reduced its historic debt to the lake to zero. This milestone was reached six months ahead of forecast and well in advance of the June 30, 2007 Alberta Environmental Appeal Board deadline. The two plants, which together make up the Wabamun Lake Water Treatment Facility, treat water from the Sundance cooling pond and produce high quality water for Wabamun Lake. Water taken from the cooling pond is replaced by water from the North Saskatchewan River.

Reports

We are committed to providing monthly reports on our water treatment facility performance. To view the latest report click on the link in the Related Pages section of this page.

Alberta Environment also publishes a regular water level report. It can be accessed here as a PDF document.