Second cell required for county lagoon

The county needs a new lagoon and county CAO Debbie Oyarzun says the project is not an option for council, but is instead, a requirement under environmental regulations.

Oyarzun made her comments to council Dec. 5 and says the county cannot discharge any more grey water from the lagoon without a new cell to accommodate the growing municipality. Council accepted her report as information.

“Environment Alberta grandfathered the county in as a one-cell lagoon but we are now required to build a secondary cell. We don’t have a set-in-stone deadline but the province could step in at any time. Right now, we are allowed to discharge once per year and a lot of work has already been done on this project,” Oyarzun said, noting delays related to land-title paperwork in acquiring the lands involved.

The lands in question, Oyarzun said, are classified Class D Wetlands.

“The class of the wetland itself, compensation for the removal of the wetlands to the province, these are expenses that we now have to plan for,” she said.

On a question from deputy reeve Dennis Nanninga regarding the status of a grant application for lagoon expenses (Item 250), Oyarzun said she did not have a date.

“We’ve done further work on this file and revised our costs since our original application. We had to increase it to cover the identification and assessment of wetlands, as well as the potential for additional expenses of construction in wetlands,” Oyarzun said, adding she did not know when announcements would be met.

In addition, Nanninga wondered if pending construction projects in the area might be denied because the new lagoon is not complete and Oyarzun said no.

“I would hesitate to suggest they would be denied but the [county] would want to ensure that the lagoon has the current capacity so I would need to have more discussions with our public utilities officer,” she added.

Oyarzun said the current volume in the lagoon is due to environmental conditions.

“I understand it [lagoon] has just been discharged and it would depend on the timing of the application, when construction would begin and as well, when funding of the new lagoon would come in,” she said, noting it is important for all parties to work together in terms of scheduling.

Reeve Doug Drozd agreed.

“There is enough interim capacity but not enough long-term capacity at the lagoon at this time,” Drozd said.

On a question from Coun. Marvin Schatz regarding what happens to the new lagoon project if funding does not come in, Oyarzun said the county would be on its own.

“Diane [Begert, director of director of finance and administration] says there is money in reserves, through the federal gas tax fund, but we are hoping that other funds will be made available through the Alberta Municipal Waste Water program.”