Engineers will soon take a new, more detailed look at the cost of pumping wastewater from Queen Charlotte to an upgraded treatment plant in Skidegate.
The study will look at operation and maintenance as well as capital costs — something not done in a 2013 study of the same idea.
Along with sewage, the study will also look at connecting homes in Skidegate Landing with the village water system, and at installing a shared water pipe between Queen Charlotte and Skidegate for emergency use.
“This study would paint a much more realistic picture of what we need to do, how we’re going to do it, and what it’s going to cost us,” said Ben Greenough, Queen Charlotte’s superintendent of public works, speaking at the Nov. 19 council meeting.
“It’s not a guarantee it’s the plan we’re going to take, but it will be a plan that can have a reasonable decision made upon it.”
Q.C. councillors voted to hire the engineering firm WSP (formerly Opus, Dayton and Knight) to do the $32,290 study. Covered by a provincial gas-tax grant, it is expected to take three or four months.
In 2009, the Village of Queen Charlotte was ordered under the federal Fisheries Act to take significant action toward treating local sewage by 2020. The village is the last on Haida Gwaii to pump untreated sewage into the ocean.
Related: Q.C. voters reject hillside site for sewage treatment plant
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