Herbert

Herbert which became a town in 1912 uses surface water from Swift Current Creek after the water takes a 69 kilometer journey. It travels from the reservoir south of the city of Swift Current through the Swift Current Main Canal to Highfield Reservoir and via the Herbert Main Canal to Herbert Reservoir. From here it is pumped two to three times a year to a small reservoir north of Herbert where it is then pumped to the Water Treatment Plant.

The town municipal water and sewer system was built in 1958 and construction on the water storage reservoir was completed in 1959. In 2011 in response to water quality issues from the surface water at the Herbert Reservoir, the town drilled some wells and built a water treatment plant with a Reverse Osmosis system to treat the groundwater. However the wells are unable to supply enough water to meet the demand, so surface water is added to the ground water to meet required demand. However, the elevated levels of organic matter in the surface water create problems with the filters of the Reverse Osmosis system. The Town of Herbert is working on correcting these issues. SCCWS assisted the town to create a Source Water Protection Plan and in 2018 to 2021 embarked on a project to determine the quality of the water at the various stages in the system that supplies water to Herbert, develop a plan of how much ground water and surface water to use at various times of the year and also to educate residents about practices they can implement to reduce their water consumption.