File photo. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Sewage Treatment Plant

Spending for phase one of major infrastructure project approved

Apr 13, 2020 | 1:00 PM

Prince Albert city council has approved spending for initial plans for major renovations and expansion at the aging sewage treatment plant. Despite this year’s $365,955 cost, with millions more to complete the design, the majority of councillors felt it was important to move ahead with the project.

The facility that processes the city’s sewage was originally constructed in 1972 with upgrades in 1999 and 2009.

“We’re closing in on 50 years in an environment out there where you have very toxic gases,” Director of Public Works Wes Hicks explained to council during a April 6 meeting. “They corrode all the materials including concrete and steel and electrical wires and so they’re always repairing things.”

In 2019, 37 emergency repairs were performed at the plant costing $788,546. Eleven spills or incidents where below regulation wastewater was discharged into the North Saskatchewan River were also reported.

“They’ve all been small, not all of them are spills,” explained Hicks. “But they are upsets in maybe the biological makeup of the effluent that leaves the plant and sometimes it’s only a minute or two minutes until the person gets the valve closed to shut down the system and them repair it.”

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The $365,955 approved on April 6 will cover the contract for the pre-design, awarded to the Saskatoon based engineering firm AECOM. The next phase, the detail design, is expected to cost $2.9 million.

According to a city report, construction of the expansion and renovations is estimated to be over $40 million, but the city will have a more accurate estimate after both the pre-design and detailed design are complete.

Construction is expected to last three years and could begin in 2022 with completion by 2025.

After nearly half an hour of discussion, council voted to move ahead with the project and award the contract for the pre-design.

“I really believe this is probably the number one infrastructure project the city needs to tackle,” Coun. Dennis Nowoselsky said during the meeting. “You don’t have good water and good sewers, you’ve got a problem.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom