Westview Ratepayers Society members were briefed on progress with the consolidated wastewater treatment plant being constructed in Townsite.
At the September 22 ratepayers meeting, City of Powell River director of infrastructure Tor Birtig and chief financial officer Adam Langenmaier provided an overview and responded to questions.
Birtig provided ratepayers a brief history of the project. He said that in March 2017, the city was successful in getting a grant to do the design work of a new treatment plant. The contract for that work was awarded to Associated Engineering (AE).
In April of 2018, the city ended up with a $65 million estimate from AE for the cost of the facility. Birtig said some additional components were added and in August 2018, when the federal/provincial grant application was finally submitted, the cost was $76 million, plus $3.8 million that was ineligible for funding, such as GST.
In August 2019, the city was approved for the grant with a $76 million price tag, according to Birtig. That amounted to about $55 million coming from the province and federal government.
Birtig said a construction contract was awarded to Graham Infrastructure, which is the same company that built the Victoria wastewater treatment plant, in June of this year.
“Currently, they are working on the excavation of the plant as well as pouring some foundations in that area,” said Birtig. “You’ve seen the massive crane that was erected to facilitate the construction.”
There are three buildings being constructed at the site. One is a process building, there will be an administration building and then the bioreactors.
Birtig said Graham Infrastructure has also been awarded the contract for the linear work, which involves piping and pump stations. That work, he said, is expected to begin in November of this year.
“We’ll probably go on to the summer of 2022; with respect to the Townsite site itself, the buildings are expected to be completed in quarter two of 2022,” said Birtig. “There is some additional work with respect to the marine outfall that is slated to be completed by quarter one of 2022. We will commence commissioning in June 2022 and that will take a number of months.
“Final completion and having the treatment going through our new plant and the extinguishing of our old plants will most likely take place in early 2023.”
Cost estimates
Birtig said through this project there have been various cost estimates. He said there was an estimate in 2016 of $27 million, but it didn’t include components that have been added to the original concept. He said as the city went through the process, those numbers have been updated, and in fact there was an estimate in 2020 from an estimating firm at a cost of $105 million.
“You can see where cost escalation has provided some hurdles; the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help us with a lot of that costing” said Birtig. “Right now, the cost estimate to finish this project is approximately $89 million. We did have a shortfall. We’ve made a request of our granting agency to cover off their portion of this cost difference. We have not heard back but we will continue to work with the money we have available.”
Regarding Tla’amin Nation, Birtig said the city is negotiating with Tla’amin as the nation would like the potential to send sewage to the city treatment plant.
Ratepayers member Dave Hodgins asked about routing of the pipeline through the trail system starting at Willingdon Beach.
“I hope we have a better community trail than the one we started with,” said Hodgins.
Birtig said that was the intent of the project.
“We chose that route because of the lessor pumping requirements,” said Birtig. “We picked the Willingdon Beach trail, which is an old railroad grade that was used to haul logs from the Willingdon Beach area to the mill site. We’re well aware of how important that trail is to the community.
“We conducted ground-penetrating radar to look at the root mass of the trees so we can avoid as much as possible having to damage any trees along the trail. We are going to use horizontal drilling techniques to avoid the root masses through those areas. As well, we are looking to upgrade the bridge crossing so we can put the sewer main along that structural member.”
Birtig said the trail will be capped with a harder surface when it is complete.
Hodgins said there is midden in the trail area that would likely be of concern to Tla’amin. Birtig said an extensive archaeological review has been conducted. He said the Willingdon Beach area has high archaeological potential so that area has been avoided.
“We are working closely with our archaeologist, as well as Tla’amin Nation,” said Birtig. “We’ve had to refine the alignment of the pipeline to avoid some other high-impact sites in that vicinity.”
