The Town of Barrhead may face a seven-figure sewer bill in the future, but the question is when, how much and who will pay.
That is what a group of environmental and wastewater experts from Opus Stewart Weir told councillors during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 13, saying their studies conclude the town needs to make upgrades to its wastewater treatment system, which could approach $1.5 million. The company also suggested the town should take steps to improve how it monitores wastewater and its impact on the Paddle River and that upgrades of its reservoir pump station are needed.
Firas Hanna, senior project manager of community infrastructure for Opus Stewart Weir, said the town asked his company to do the studies after receiving a warning from Alberta Environment in August 2015, after it failed a test designed to check the safety of effluent discharge on aquatic life.
“We have reviewed the whole system and did an analysis of all the data the town and the facility’s operators provided and we have come up with some recommendations,” he said, adding from the amount of sludge that was in the town’s waste lagoon it was evident that there had been very little maintenance done, in terms of dredging and collecting, for 20 years.
Hanna said although the wastewater system failed an Alberta Environment test, Opus Stewart Weir believes that with only relatively small minor upgrades, the town’s lagoon system has the potential to meet federal and provincial government regulatory requirements.
Among the requirements are:
• Implementing a plant operating procedure to fully empty both storage lagoons in the fall.
• Creating a weekly sampling protocol to monitor ammonia, temperature, pH and other elements in the effluent.
• Planning and budgeting plan for piping modifications to the storage cells as well as upgrade the aeration diffuser system and remove the accumulated sludge from the lagoon.
• Consider providing ongoing operator training, as well as, having an independent review of methodologies for testing and compliance monitoring.
• Reviewing the waste production from the water treatment plant, with the goal of reducing the volume of discharge to the lagoon system.
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Hanna said the cost to implement, including improvements to the Paddle River habitat, seems large, but it is an all in price. He also noted the report is only a draft version and the costs could change in the final draft.
“Included in all the prices is a 50 per cent contingency fund,” he said, noting it is broken into 25 per cent for contingency and 15 per cent for engineering fees. “We rounded it up to 50 per cent just to make sure there is enough funding for the project.”
Also included in the lagoon updates is the cost of sludge removal.
Mayor Gerry St. Pierre asked, at what stage of the project would the town know what the final cost was.
“Is it after the tenders go out to the engineering and construction companies that do this type of work?” he said.
Hanna said by the tendering stage the town should have a good idea of the engineering costs, but the contingency fund is determined by the actual construction.
Martin Taylor, Barrhead’s chief administrative officer, said in order for the town to be successful in accessing the various capital grants, especially from the federal government, available for the project, council would have to receive the final draft of the report with up-to-date numbers by no later than the next council meeting.
“I’m not sure the sludge removal would be included in any capital grants. From my experience with other municipalities, it’s more of a maintenance issue that we should have been doing all along,” he said. “It is something council is going to have to think about during the budget process because it would have to come out of the operational budget.”
St. Pierre asked Hanna how much grant funding in his experience would the town be eligible for.
Hanna said using the $1.5 million guideline for all the improvements to the lagoon and the river habitat, he believes about $730,000 is achievable.
Dana McEwan and Kashif Sheikh, of Opus Stewart Weir, then discussed their wastewater monitoring and aquatic health study on the Paddle River.
The town asked the company for the study because after the town’s wastewater is treated through the lagoon process it is then released into the river.
“I think we have some strong data and have come up with solid recommendations and some very good information for council that will help with your grant applications,” she said, adding like the lagoon study, they found the river contained high ammonia, phosphorus and nitrogen along with 17 other nutrients that were above the criteria set out by the federal and provincial governments.
She said the study supported the lagoon findings in that there are too many nutrients in the sludge and biosolids because the cells in the lagoons and the aeration tubes are not functioning to capacity.
“I think by improving the aeration tubes and removing some of the sludge, a real impact can be made on the health of the river,” McEwan said, adding the biomaterials can be used in agriculture to improve yields. “Edmonton and Calgary regarded this sludge as a real problem about 30 years ago, but what they found is that they could use certain farm fields to dispose of the biosolids.”
She added, what those farmers found out was that the biosolids not only helped add nutrients into the soil, but helped the land retain water.
“So if you ever go through a drought, the fields will be more resilient,” MacEwan said. “This is a very productive farming community and I think you could do a really good test project to see if this works. And as the program expands you will have a really good disposal site for biosolids.”
Coun. Roy Ulmer said he was excited about the potential of using the biosolids in agriculture.
“It’s really a simple solution,” he said. “The water will go back in the river and the biosludge will get used on the fields to improve soil conditions.”
The Opus Stewart Weir delegation concluded their presentation with a study on the condition of the reservoir pump station.
In July, an Opus Dayton Knight (an offshoot of Opus Stewart Weir) engineer visited the pump station and inspected the pipes, HVAC system, the station’s structural, architectural and electrical components as well as its duty pump. The report stated that the piping and pumps (two duty and one fire) are over 40 years-old.
“The pumps need to be replaced,” Hanna said, adding the lifecycle of a pump is between 20 and 30 years old. “Those are the major items, along with the backup power generation, which also should be replaced.”
Other items the report suggests replacing or upgrading include: piping and electrical, as well as improvements to the building.
Hanna said, while the town is doing these upgrades it would be a good idea to install a modern monitoring system, which not only would allow town staff to see what is going on, but would be able to shut down systems remotely if needed.
Depending on the options the town selects, the price range in the draft budget ranges from about $1.1 to $1.55 million.
