North Huron council is now considering constructing a new water tower in Wingham, rather than replacing the town's current standpipe.
Council accepted the recommendation from engineering firm R.J. Burnside and Associates, who were brought on to design the replacement for the structure that is now 50 years old.
In 2020, the town's Water and Wastewater Master Plan recommended replacing the existing standpipe in the same location and adding a booster pumping station.
Jeff Paznar, Senior Vice President of Water and Wastewater for R.J. Burnside, says the standpipe doesn't make much of its water storage available, where a water tower does.
"If a well goes down for some reason or the generator doesn't start up, you basically have that entire volume of water available to the community," he said. "Usually, that's two days of storage, where as right now, you have hours."
He told council that there's only about 229 cubic metres of usable storage in a standpipe, which could be an issue in emergencies.
"That's why you see water towers going up. It just eliminates the risk for operations and during fire events... you don't really see these tall, skinny standpipes because it's just wasted water in your tank."
The firm said a water tower is the best solution for town, and could run a similar cost to the new standpipe and booster pumping station North Huron set out to build.
Constructing a water tower would require finding new land to build on though, ideally on in the area of the current standpipe due to the elevation.
Paznar said there was also newly established grants available from the province that could help fund the project, up to 73 per cent.
Council also directed staff to submit a grant application to the Housing Enabling Water System Fund, as they're due by April 19.