Saskatoon officials have identified pumping infrastructure at the Lansdowne lift station in need of immediate replacement, but the pump parts are now obsolete, and a new pump wouldn’t fit the station without substantial modification.
Saskatoon Water installed locally-machined parts worth $30,000 as a temporary measure after it discovered the problem at the lift station in November 2024.
“If the temporary replacement parts become unavailable, or the [lift station] further deteriorates and cannot be operated, the sanitary system would need to be placed on a temporary bypass system,” states an engineering report to council, which adds that such a measure could cost $25,000 per month.
Built in 1963, the station had already been set to be replaced in the coming years. But that timeline is accelerating now that Saskatoon Water has recommended that $300,000 from the Wastewater Treatment Capital Reserve be transferred to fund the immediate design of the Lansdowne lift station replacement.
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After council voted to accept the recommendation, Saskatoon Water Engineering Services Manager, Mitch McMann, said that construction of the replacement lift station is likely to occur in 2026.
Related Saskatoon Water Projects
A new drinking water reservoir and pumping station just south of the intersection of McOrmond Drive and Baltzan Boulevard was completed in 2024 for about $75 million.
In June 2024, the new Spadina Lift Station project was completed. The lift station and force main moves approximately 60% of Saskatoon’s wastewater from the sanitary sewer system to the H. McIvor Weir Wastewater Treatment Plant.
