By CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
COBDEN — The $9 million waste water plant for Cobden is on schedule, but with due process, could be put behind.
The Environmental Study Report was completed and the public had 30 days to comment on it with what’s known as a Part 2 Order. The Muskrat Lake Association (MLA) responded with a three-page Part 2 Order which the township’s engineers reviewed and responded to, advising it would also respond to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC).
The Part 2 Order is “like a bump up” in the environmental assessment study, noted Steve Hodson, Acting Manager of Physical Services for the Township of Whitewater Region. He has been involved with this major project since its beginning four years ago.
“The Part 2 Order, once submitted to the approvals branch in Toronto or the district office in Ottawa, has to be acted on,” he said. “It starts a legal process with the approvals department.”
While it’s not yet known how this Part 2 Order will affect the project, Mr. Hodson was advised by the MOECC “it could delay a project by two months to a year.”
However, that doesn’t mean the project comes to a standstill, he said.
“We can continue working, but the environmental study report won’t get approval from the ministry until the Part 2 Order process is complete,” Mr. Hodson said.
He noted the MLA’s Part 2 Order spoke about a couple of things.
The first is the MLA wants a plant designed that will have zero bypasses into the lagoon, which goes into Muskrat Lake, he said.
“From a hydraulic engineering point of view, no engineer will suggest that a plant will not experience a bypass,” Mr. Hodson said. “In a catastrophic event or an unusual emergency event where flows are so great, that instead of having sewage back up into the whole collection system, you have to be able to bypass.
“They’re designed to do so, but the clear objective, is to design a plan that won’t bypass.”
The MLA would like to see a spill basin constructed so if there are extrenuous flows, the untreated water will be stored instead of going into the lake, he said. The suggestion has been to build the spill basin in the township’s snow dump area behind the current plant. However, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry C has stated unequivocally there is to be no construction done outside the current fencing area, Mr. Hodson noted.
A concern he has with a spill basin is there could be odours, which may not be pleasant.
“We have a very confined limited space that we can work in,” he said. “But, the plant that we are designing to fit into the fenced area will have an increased treatment capacity.”
Mr. Hodson said what is being overlooked is that the township continues to work on tightening up the collection system, explaining that storm and groundwater is getting into the wastewater system and being treated – which is not necessary.
While it has been suggested that changes be made so that possibly the storm and groundwater be piped into the lagoon (wetland), Mr. Hodson said, while there are known deficiencies with the sanitary system including inflow and infiltration of groundwater and surface water, the township continues to troubleshoot and repair these deficiencies but it will be a long-term, ongoing task.
“At this time, it is unlikely that the focus of storm water management and/or treatment will involve the lagoon within the Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW),” he stated, adding, “The PSW is host to many species of flora and fauna that is of special interest with the Province.”
The current treatment system allows for 696 cubic metres per day while the new treatment system will allow 1,000 cm per day, which allows for growth in the community over the next couple of decades, he explained.
He is confident the new design will handle any extrenuous flows that may occur in the future. The peak hydraulic capacity will increase to 5,000 cm per day from the current 2,000 cm per day, which means during a peak water event, the system should be able to handle the extra influx, Mr. Hodson said.
The new plant will also be operating under new effluent quality, he said.
“One of our real mandates is not only to improve and build a new plant with greater capacity, it will have tremendous effluent quality compared to what we have now,” he said. “We have a plant operating under 1979 effluent criteria, and this (new) plant is going to be one of the state-of-the-art plants in this area.”
Another concern of the MLA is there is no process and instrumentation design diagrams available, Mr. Hodson said noting these diagrams do not exist yet.
The township’s engineering firm, J2PG from Pembroke responded to the concerns and questions of the MLA by the deadline of April 21, and now it’s just waiting for feedback.
“I’m confident the Part 2 Order isn’t going to go anywhere,” Mr. Hodson said. “I think we’ve covered all our bases in the environmental study report.
“At this stage, this is just going to cost us time and more money.”
Looking back to the start of this project, Mr. Hodson said it is currently at Phase 3 of a PHASE 5 process, which was the environmental assessment report. This report includes much documentation and public sessions, which have been done.
“The result is the Environmental Assessment Report which goes to the MOECC stating what we feel is the best solution to the problem and shows we’ve covered all our bases, done everything we can think of in terms of social, economic, environmental outcome and future development,” Mr. Hodson said. “It’s all together in this report.”
The project, of which there are two parts, must be completed by March 2020 or the $6 million funding opportunity from the federal and provincial government closes, he said. The municipal portion will be debentured over a long period of time, most likely through Infrastructure Ontario, he noted.
Explaining the project, Mr. Hodson said two new treatment systems are being built utilizing a membrane technology to achieve tertiary treatment. This means that the phosphorous and nitrogen levels, suspended solids and biological oxygen demand will be under current criteria instead of the 1979 criteria, which is when the current plant was built.
The technology chosen by the township complies with the MOECC’s projected design effluent quality criteria, he said. The technology offers a consistent up-front capital cost compared with other technologies with a slightly higher operational cost. The technology also offers a smaller footprint. This, along with the projected effluent quality, brands it as the preferred technology, he stated.
Once the new systems are ready, which is Part 1, the current plant will be shut down, refurbished and put back online, which is Part 2. The treated sewage in the current plant, even after it is refurbished, will go through the new plant so it meets the current criteria, he said, adding, all of this work is included in the funding.
“The current plant has served Cobden well, it’s done a great job, but it’s old and it has no redundancy,” Mr. Hodson said, explaining further, “Currently, we can’t do major work on the plant because there is no back-up plant.”
What is means is if there is a major breakdown, then the untreated sewage goes directly into the lagoon (wetland). Once the new systems are in place and the old plant is refurbished, there will be three systems which means there will always be two backups, he explained.
Mr. Hodson said while it sounds like there’s lots of time still – just under two years – for this type of project, it’s not.
“Our engineering firm, while continuing to work on preliminary design, are concerned with the Part 2 Order,” he said. “This will cost us time and possibly a construction season. In the end, it’s just costing the municipality more money and every day the plant is not upgraded, we are operating at dated effluent criteria and putting more phosphorous into the lagoon and lake.
“The MLA know all of this, and know what the issues of the lake and plant are, there’s just a component that they want to see different and that is zero future bypassing,” Mr. Hodson said.
When questions were raised about why there was not a tendering process for the environmental assessment, he said the township chose to utilize its current engineering firm of record for the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process.
“This is a firm that has been factually involved in matters of township planning and development, environmental and engineering for some time,” Mr. Hodson stated.
He believes council has done all it could regarding fiscal responsibility and due diligence, which it must do on everything it does, but especially on major capital projects.
There have been two different councils working on this project, following the 2014 municipal election. However, Mr. Hodson said, the current council was updated on the project and has been receiving updates each month. Any questions or concerns any council member had have been answered, and will continue to be answered, he added.
While it was hopeful the tender for design and build would be out this spring, until the Part 2 Order is dealt with by the MOECC, that can’t happen. Which is why there is now concern that starting construction in the early fall may not happen, Mr. Hodson said.
But ever the optimist, he said, “We’re still hoping to dig a hole by early fall, that is a goal.”
He said a project of this type is “long…and painful. Just going through the environmental assessment process, that we have to do, is brutal, it’s just report after report. It’s a process and we have no choice. That’s the province at play.”
