50/50 funding for a new lagoon in Riverdale Municipality
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Sheila Runions
Rivers Banner
Riverdale Municipality held a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 4; council and CAO outnumbered interested residents. Mayor Todd Gill suggested the poor attendance was because the project was so old or the weather too cold. Rivers Banner countered that because Christmas holidays were still in effect and children not back in school was why people were absent. Regardless of the reason, only seven citizens, this reporter and two WCG-TV Channel 12 volunteers comprised the crowd.
The meeting was held to discuss a proposed local improvement plan for wastewater management. The project is a new lagoon, something that has been talked about for some 20 years. Gill said it was “unfortunate the costs are what they are” and that councils past and present had “hoped someday for better funding from the province. That will likely not come and we were advised to take this offer while it’s here now, so we should take it.”
He read the entire improvement plan, answered three questions and the meeting concluded in a mere 15 minutes. According to the plan, “Riverdale Municipality intends to construct a new wastewater treatment lagoon. The existing lagoon was constructed in 1956 and presently receives wastewater by a gravity sewer system from Rivers and by truck haul from rural residences and local cottages. The lagoon is located approximately 420 metres south of Rivers [and] consists of one primary and one secondary cell. A biosolids cell was constructed in 1997 to receive solids cleaned out of the primary cell. The lagoon has a seepage discharge system, which ultimately discharges south to Little Saskatchewan River via underground arteries, currently in contravention of the provincial Waste Management Act.
“In conjunction with current and anticipated future regulations, the new lagoon footprint will be significantly larger than the current lagoon, which continuously releases into the subsoil. A conventional facultative [not mechanically aerated] lagoon design includes one primary cell and two storage cells that will treat and store a volume that has been estimated to meet a 2035 design load.”
It is hoped PUB will approve the financing plan and that construction can begin this spring. The new lagoon will be north of the current location and will “shoulder the industrial road and be east of Redline Transport on CN land council purchased eight years ago. We will need a new lift station and there is inadequate clay for storage, so we’ll install a manufactured liner to stop seepage. A pipe discharges to the wetlands area at Little Saskatchewan River; the new one will discharge at certain times and flow to the river.”
Council also hopes the project will be complete by fall and that the old lagoon will be decommissioned shortly thereafter or, depending on weather conditions, in spring 2019. Council is not expecting to repeat this process again in the year 2035; the plan simply states the new lagoon will be of adequate size to meet the projected population growth in those 18 years.
As Gill said, “This project has been around for years, it’s not new to anybody. It is finally approved and the contribution of $3 million has already been approved by Government of Canada Clean Water & Wastewater Fund.”
The estimated total price tag is $6 million; $100,000 will be paid from the utility reserve fund leaving the outstanding $2.9 million to be borrowed. Council is suggesting to PUB a 20-year repayment plan at 4.125 per cent, making an annual payment of $215,755.65. Annual operation and maintenance of the lagoon will be funded by operating costs received from Rivers’ ratepayers and truck hauls.
Council has received PUB approval for a sewer rate surcharge to recover debenture servicing; the specific rate surcharge is what must be approved. Council is proposing a 475 per cent increase; however, the current rate is only $1.48 so if approved, that rate would jump to only $8.51 per 1,000 gallons. (An average household of four uses 1,000 gallons per month.) The current truck hauling fee of $2.22 per 100 gallons will remain unchanged.
Gill said, “The plan, as always, is to gain revenue on the utility side, not through taxation. But Public Utilities Board (PUB) will tell us how to do that, we need final PUB approval. Our public has accepted that water and sewer will go up in accordance. People should always look for ways to conserve with low-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads.”
When Gill officially closed the meeting, council passed first reading of the plan.
