Work at the consolidated wastewater treatment plant in Townsite has slowed because of eelgrass in waters in the vicinity of the outfall being constructed.
At the City of Powell River committee of the whole meeting on February 2, director of infrastructure Tor Birtig said eelgrass was encountered.
“We knew when we initially monitored the site there would be eelgrass present and that was part of our submission to the department of fisheries and oceans (DFO) to get authorization to go through eelgrass,” said Birtig. “Currently, we are working with the department on the topic to find mitigation methods that are in keeping with DFO’s guidance.”
Birtig said work is still progressing at the site but not at the pace the city would like to see.
“We are hoping to get an answer from DFO this week and to confirm a schedule,” said Birtig. “We have a fisheries window and the guidelines take us to February 15. We may encounter some issues with having the in-water work completed by that time.”
Birtig said the city is awaiting a response from DFO, which it is hoping to receive in the next few days.
According to the DFO website, eelgrass plays an important role in physical structuring of nearshore marine environments by filtering the water column, stabilizing sediment and buffering shorelines. Eelgrass meadows have extremely high levels of primary production, ranking among the most productive ecosystems on the planet.
According to the website, eelgrass was designated an ecologically significant species because it provides numerous ecological functions, including habitat for fish and their prey.
At the meeting, councillor George Doubt brought forward a recommendation that staff be directed to provide a monthly progress report to the finance committee regarding construction of the wastewater treatment plant, which includes: project costs to date compared to budget; proposed schedule with actual events up to each date the report is prepared and how events may alter the overall schedule; changes to project scope of work; project risk management and mitigation.
Doubt said the motion arose from broad interest in the community in making sure project management is going on and information is available to the public. He said he read an auditor general’s report on a capital project in Mackenzie, BC, and it was a good document on how that operation was overseen by the council and management of that district.
One of the recommendations in the report was that council should get a report covering issues he talked about in the motion.
“It’s good to keep track of how the project is progressing according to the schedule, dealing with any delays that come up, and what it might cost,” said Doubt. “It would also be looking at changes or anything that might need to be added or taken away from the project. It would be looking at all the risks that might come about to the project, as well as what might be done to avoid or resolve those risks to the least amount of harm.”
Doubt said this will provide useful information for the finance committee. He said he is pretty confident that staff is already keeping track of all of these things.
“Having public reporting on a monthly basis would give us an opportunity to respond to any changes and surprises that come up along the way,” said Doubt.
He said he had heard from a member of the wastewater treatment plant monitoring committee who was hoping they could get access to the information.
“What I said was these will be public reports that will come to the finance committee and they will be available to anyone in the public, which is a good reason to do this,” said Doubt.
Birtig said his department is keeping track of all of these items as the project progresses, so to provide a summary report on a monthly basis is not going to be overly taxing for staff.
Councillor Jim Palm, who chairs the wastewater treatment plant monitoring committee, said it had its first organizational meeting. He said he met with Birtig last weekand there had been a request of a similar nature to the motion from a member of the monitoring committee.
“This will be very useful going forward for our monitoring committee to be informed every step of the way,” said Palm.
The committee supported Doubt’s motion for a monthly progress report to the finance committee.
