The city is one step closer to fulfilling its Liquid Waste Management Plan thanks to a grant from Environment Canada.
“The Liquid Waste Management incorporates a lot of our sewage treatment plans for the future and decommission of the sewage plant is a step towards that,” city engineer Guy Cicon told council at their Oct. 13 meeting.
The city is looking to decommission its current sewage lagoon due to a planned switch over to one acquired from Catalyst Paper in 2011 at a cost of $5.75 million.
The grant the city received came from the Environment Canada National Wetland Conservation Fund and totalled $164,030. The grant money is pending a contribution of $191,500 from the city or other funding sources.
As part of its grant obligation, Cicon said that the city will restore the land for wildlife in the area. The sewage lagoon is located within the ecologically diverse Somass Estuary.
“We will decommission some of the dikes and let water come through for fish traffic.
The time line of the decommissioning will depend on when the city switches over to the former Catalyst lagoon.
“We have to establish the new lagoon before we can dewater the existing lagoon,” Cicon said, adding that the agreement over where the new sewage outfall will go—a major stumbling block that Cicon was dealing with in 2015—is almost complete.
The city has up until March 31, 2018 to accept the grant money.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
twitter.com/alberninews
