City of Powell River’s consolidated wastewater treatment plant is nearing completion.
At the April 27 city finance committee meeting, director of infrastructure Tor Birtig reported that Graham Infrastructure, the contractor, is approximately 95 per cent complete with overall construction of the treatment plant, as well as linear work and pump stations.
“Commissioning of the new plant is well underway at this stage,” said Birtig. “Approximately 99 per cent of our wastewater is being treated by the new process. We have the exception of several houses near the Alexander Street lift station that have not yet been turned over and flowing toward the new facility.”
Birtig said on the liquid stream portion of the treatment plant, Graham has reached substantial completion recently and is starting toward the solid stream process, which includes grit removal and biosolids.
All the pump stations have been completed, said Birtig. The Hemlock Street water main and pressure reducing valves are now part of the water system in that area and are functioning well, he added.
“We’re looking towards substantial completion of the solid stream near the end of June, with total performance scheduled for mid-July,” said Birtig. “We’re looking at June – July before the full process of that treatment plant is complete and the turnover comes to the city.
“In the interim, our crews are operating the plant on a daily basis with the assistance of Graham and Associated Engineering. Things are going quite well. There are a few bugs to work through but to date the treatment process has been greater than expected. All reports to date are that the plant is functioning quite well.”
Birtig said the forecasted cost for the treatment plant is still the same at $99,711,800.
Sewage status
Councillor George Doubt said he read in a report from Birtig that the Westview, Townsite and Wildwood treatment plants are substantially decommissioned and he believed that meant they were not processing sewage anymore. He did not believe that meant the plants had been deconstructed or remediated.
Birtig said the Westview plant is still processing the sewage for those several houses near Alexander Street. He said once that is complete, the city will start drawing down the tanks and working on removal of the equipment that is inherent in that process.
The Townsite plant has been drained and all the sludge at the bottom has been cleaned, according to Birtig. The Wildwood lagoon continues aeration of the sewage but nothing further is being introduced into the lagoon.
“As far as the future is concerned, we are starting to work on plans on the demolition of the Townsite plant and then the future uses of the Westview plant as well, and we are working with our consultants on the final cleanup of the Wildwood lagoon site,” said Birtig. “There’s some removal of the remaining sludge at the bottom of the lagoon.”
Councillor Jim Palm asked about city staff’s learning process with the new plant. Birtig said city staff are at the new facility shadowing the contractors; there have also been numerous training sessions.
Palm then asked if there had been any complaints from Townsite residents about odour. Birtig said to date, he had not heard of any odour issues. There had been some odour complaints in the north harbour, but after some flows had been rerouted, that concern has gone away as well, he added.
Finance committee chair Trina Isakson said it was great to see that the budget is still the same. She then asked about disposal of biosolids.
Birtig said the plan is to continue with collection and then transport them to the Courtenay area, where it is being applied on a field for silage.
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked Birtig how confident he is that everything will be transitioned by the end of July.
Birtig replied that with the pace of everything moving forward, he is quite confident the city will take over the facility by the end of July.
