Windsor issues tender for $10M wastewater treatment facility
The town of Windsor, N.S., issued a public tender this week for a new wastewater treatment facility as the community moves forward with plans to stop dumping raw sewage.
Don Beatty, the town’s director of public works, says it’s progress.
"Fifty per cent of our town has treated sewage systems and 50 per cent does not. This current project will provide us with 100 per cent treatment for the town of Windsor," he said Wednesday.
The federal government identifies three levels of sewage treatment:
Primary is the most basic and removes solids.
Environment Canada says secondary level wastewater treatment is "typically a combination of physical and biological treatment processes that removes over 95 per cent of the total mass of conventional pollutants including oxygen-consuming matter, solid materials and nutrients."
Significant amounts of non-conventional pollutants and bacteria that may be present are also removed through secondary treatment.
It defines the third and most advanced treatment as tertiary, saying "it is generally used to achieve a desired level of effluent quality for a particular substance. It can be accomplished using a number of physical, chemical or biological processes (e.g., carbon filters, reverse osmosis)."
$10M split between three levels of government
Beatty says Windsor's existing plant is secondary and the new facility will be advanced secondary. Costs for the $10 million project will be evenly split between the town, the province and the federal government.
Other towns and communities can apply for similar funding.
"This will provide treatment of that sewage, treat it to the current standards that are imposed by regulatory agencies and assure that the town of Windsor is responsible in doing its bit to protect the environment."
Municipalities across the province and the country are struggling to comply with federal Wastewater Systems Effluent regulations which are required to be in place by 2020, 2030 or 2040, depending on a number of factors, including the amount of sewage and the body of water where it's being discharged.
Cost a big factor
In addition to Windsor, there are nine other areas of the province that discharge raw sewage.
Eight are in Cape Breton Regional Municipality:
- North Sydney/Sydney Mines
- Glace Bay/Reserve
- New Waterford/Scotchtown
- Coxheath/Westmount
- Louisbourg
- New Victoria
- Donkin
- Port Morien
Matt Viva, CBRM's manager of wastewater operations, says meeting the federal regulations is "extremely challenging."
Currently, most sewage is discharged into the Atlantic Ocean along areas of rugged coastline.
"The two largest reasons are the time lines and how much these systems cost. Collecting and treating wastewater is very expensive," he said.
Parrsboro saving for new sewage facility
Parrsboro is another community that releases raw sewage.
Mayor Lois Smith says a treatment plant "is a major priority for the town at this time."
Parrsboro's sewage flows into its harbour and the mayor says "most people, including council, are not comfortable with that."
Smith says she's been on council for 17 years and a treatment plant has been a constant item on the agenda.
"We have always maintained good reserve funds and we have in place reserves for a sewer treatment plant and we keep adding to that," Smith said.
The town has just awarded a contract for pre-design and an environmental risk assessment and it hopes to have the new facility up and running by 2020.
Smith hopes a clean harbour will attract more people and future development to the town, helping it grow.
Nova Scotia’s department of environment estimates the cost of bringing all the areas into compliance with regulations at over $450 million.
