Town facing multi-million dollar expense to update its Water Pollution Control Plant

October 1, 2020 · 0 Comments

Written By PAULA BROWN

LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

The Town of Shelburne is potentially facing a multi-million dollar cost to maintain or update its Water Pollution Control Plant.

“The costing has significantly increased since numbers were originally presented about two and a half years ago,” P. Eng Stephen Burnett recently informed Shelburne Council.

The Town’s elected officials received a report from the municipality’s contracted engineer S. Burnett & Associates Limited, during a recent council meeting on Monday (Sept. 28). The report given by Stephen Burnett showed the options for upgrading the sewage treatment capacity and the potential costs based on design concepts.

The report detailed three possible options that the Town can take, which include a “do nothing” option, upgrading the current technology in the plant (extended aeration), or upgrading to new technology known as membrane bioreactors.

The “do nothing option” would include upgrades to the existing WPCP so that it would meet regulations of clarifiers and solids treatment and storage. The potential cost of this option is between $11.8 million and $14.9 million.

“If we were to do nothing and not move forward with an expansion, adjust to take the existing plant up to the current regulatory, operational and optimization levels that would be proposed we would be in that $11.8 to $14.9 million range,” said Burnett.

Council was also presented with the option of upgrading the current technology in the plant (extended aeration), which would see a potential cost range of $29.9 million to $32.7 million. The current technology would need upgrades with clarifiers, disinfection, and solids treatment and storage. Council was also presented with membrane bioreactors as an option, which “would replace the extended aeration technology” and have a potential cost of $25.6 million to $26.9 million.

“If we are looking straight at the construction cost it is approximately $20.9 million for the extended aeration option and $17.8 million for the membrane bioreactor option,” said Burnett.

Construction costs Burnett says have increased significantly in the last two years, something he hasn’t seen since 2002 due to the Walkerton tragedy.

“We are seeing a very similar increase due to all levels of government and private sectors investing in infrastructure,” said Burnett.

Total non-construction costs for extended aeration is $29.2 million, and $25.4 million for membrane bioreactors. The high end cost range of the two options is dependent on the balancing tank for wastewater.

Coun. Walter Benotto questioned how set the numbers were for the options, with Burnett confirming that the numbers have been updated, but are based on a conceptual design and could change with the design process.

Burnett said they are leaning towards membrane technology and that the upgrade would either be the last aeration or the first membrane, based on the cheaper cost of the latter technology.

Addressing how the Town will pay for the project Carey Holmes, Treasurer, said that they will be relying on development charges, grants, and a possible phased approach.

“Long-term borrowing is definitely in our future for this,” said Holmes.