Proposed sewer-spill deadline is ‘nonsense,’ councillor says

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This article was published 05/10/2023 (748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg city councillor says he’s “appalled” municipal leaders lack a detailed plan to expedite work to reduce the number of times diluted sewage spills into Winnipeg waterways each year.

Last year, city council directed staff to “work towards” cutting 50 years off the worst-case scenario date to complete a master plan to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSO). Owing to that vote, an update released Thursday should have laid out specific steps to complete the work by 2045, a deadline the province has imposed for it, according to the chairman of council’s water and waste committee.

“I’m appalled by the fact (that staff were directed) a year ago to come up with a plan and (didn’t),” said Coun. Brian Mayes.

Instead, a master plan update states that if the provincial and federal governments don’t supply funding for the project by this year, the city will solely fund and complete the mega project by 2095, about 75 years after it started.

Mayes said the city has yet to formally request funding from the senior governments.

And he called the 2095 target date “nonsense.”

“Nothing takes this long to do. … This is crazy. If the staff are right, some of the pipes (added during the project) will have worn out before the time you finish the (last of the) work. I want less sewage going into the river,” said Mayes.

As previously reported by the Free Press, the volume of CSOs surged to an unprecedented high last year, sending 27.5 billion litres of diluted sewage into local rivers.

Combined sewer overflows occur in older Winnipeg sewers that collect both precipitation and wastewater in a single pipe. Heavy rain or snow events can cause such pipes to overflow into rivers.

Mayes stressed city council must debate the true cost of expediting the work to reduce CSOs.

“We need honest numbers here about what it would cost to go it alone,” he said.

The city estimates the master plan will cost at least $1.15 billion and could rise to as high as $2.3 billion. Mayes has repeatedly questioned the maximum estimate, since it appears to include an unusually large contingency fund.

Meanwhile, there are clear, ongoing examples of the pollution caused by sewage spilling into rivers, which eventually winds up in Lake Winnipeg, said Alexis Kanu, executive director of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.

“For the past month, there’s been horrific images of (algae) blooms on Lake Winnipeg that have been covering the south basin of the lake for the month of September and into October,” said Kanu. “We also know the bloom on the north basin, which is even larger, has been present since the end of July. People are disgusted. … We’re not OK with green, soupy lakes.”

She said the city’s top priority to reduce that pollution must be a $2.3-billion upgrade to Winnipeg’s north end sewage treatment plant, since it is the largest point source of algae-promoting phosphorus entering Lake Winnipeg.

“As large as those CSO volumes sound, the north end treatment plant can treat upwards of 200 million litres of sewage a day, and the effluent from that huge volume is still not meeting its (provincially set) phosphorus limit, so that’s where the attention needs to be (first),” said Kanu.

She said the city should also seek innovative ways to speed up work to reduce combined sewer overflows, which could include installing underground sewage storage that holds diluted sewage during storms and slowly releases it for treatment once the system has more capacity.

Kanu said it is disappointing to see the city suggest such a lengthy timeline for the CSO project.

“I think this just speaks to the disregard for deadlines that we’ve seen generally when it comes to Winnipeg sewage treatment (upgrades). The north end (treatment plant) was supposed to be done in 2014, and now we’ll maybe be partway there by 2030,” she said.

Kanu said she is pleased city council members have taken sewage pollution seriously in recent years, including council’s “difficult decision” last month to approve an expected $482-million cost increase for the north end upgrade.

A public service report notes the city committed more than $170 million to reduce CSOs between 2013 and 2022. It expects to spend another $240 million over the next six years, including council’s commitment to increase annual spending on the project from $30 million to $45 million between 2024 and 2027.

A request to interview city water and waste officials was not granted Thursday. In an emailed statement, officials did not directly state why a plan to meet the 2045 CSO master plan deadline has yet to be released. The statement did note that change would have a “significant impact” on water and sewer rates, which would be detailed in a future report.

Council’s water and waste committee will debate the report on Oct. 12.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga