City wants province to amend sewage plant licence to save $30M

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This article was published 06/07/2017 (3045 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall hopes to save $30 million on the massive $795-million upgrades to the north end sewage treatment plant with an amendment to its environmental licence dealing with ammonia discharges.

Finance committee chairman Coun. Scott Gillingham said city CAO Doug McNeil has been holding discussions with the province with the goal of changing the plant’s licence — instead of terms that dictate ammonia levels never to exceed a certain level, the city wants the terms altered to state never to exceed a certain level on a rolling yearly average.

Gillingham said the effect on Lake Winnipeg would be minimal but the savings to the city would be significant.

“The north end plant, in layman’s terms, needs to be built to a standard where effluent levels are never to exceed a certain threshold, which really increases the standard to which the north end plant needs to be built,” Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston) told reporters. “If the licence was amended to “a rolling average” rather than “never to exceed” it would allow savings and designs of the plant, tens of millions of dollars.

“On a monthly basis, there are times throughout the year when the (ammonia discharges) are higher and times when they are lower,” Gillingham said. “So if you took a rolling average, it would allow the city to meet its requirements on a rolling average rather than a never-to-exceed limit.”

While the public and city council often appear to be obsessed with roads and underpasses, the cost of addressing Winnipeg’s sewage problems is staggering.

The province and the Clean Environment Commission require the City of Winnipeg to undertake expensive projects to minimize the impact of discharges into rivers, which flow into Lake Winnipeg. The tab for upgrading the city’s three sewage plants is pegged at $1.2 billion. In addition, the city has given the province four options on how to address the discharge of untreated sewage into the rivers during heavy rainfall, with the least expensive costing $1.2 billion and the most expensive, $4.1 billion.

Gillingham said numerous studies have shown that Winnipeg’s environmental impact on its rivers and Lake Winnipeg is a small fraction of the contribution from the entire watershed, adding however the city is facing a huge bill for a marginal benefit.

A December 2015 civic report on discharges of untreated sewage into the city’s river system concluded the impact from ammonia discharges was negligible.

“I’m not saying that the City of Winnipeg shouldn’t be doing its part,” Gillingham said. “Even a small amendment… which is still a high standard, would allow us to continue to protect the environment but also could save the citizens of Winnipeg tens of millions of dollars. I think that’s a reasonable approach for that to be looked at.”

Gillingham said he had no idea if McNeil was making any headway with the province or if the province could amend the north end plant’s environmental licence, which was issued by the Clean Environment Commission.

“Our CAO has worked through many conversations over many months with the province,” Gillingham said. “I want to get it on the public record that the province look at this, amend the licence to the north end plant to allow the city to realize some savings.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca