Excerpt from:

The Friends of the Jock River Newsletter

Volume 2 Issue 2 Spring 2002

Munster Sewage Treatment

This topic relates to a decision in 1999 by the former Regional Municipality of Ottawa- Carleton to proceed with the installation of an 11.4 km pipeline to transport sewage from Munster Hamlet to Richmond. Munster sewage would then travel an additional 50 km through about 6 pumping stations before reaching the R.O. Pickard sewage treatment facility at Green's Creek (ROPEC). The pipe would cost $12-15 million (exact cost unknown), and the sewage would be treated to a secondary level. The Friends of the Jock River (FJR) favors an on-site, high tech treatment facility that would treat the sewage to tertiary level (virtually swimming pool quality minus the chlorine), discharged to the Jock River. It would cost $3.1 million (fixed cost including installation and operation for 3 years). To make a long story short, in 1999 the FJR and others appealed to the Ontario Minister of the Environment to conduct a "bump-up" environmental review of the project's environmental assessment. The Minister rejected the requests. Also in 1999, the Friends and three others appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board to reject the City's amendment to the RMOC Official Plan for a pipeline from Munster to Richmond. On June 8, 2001, the Ontario Municipal Board allowed the appeal, in part.

The OMB was critical of the City's witnesses in the hearing and the absence of planners throughout the project. It concluded, "the best evidence is not before the Board", and it sent the City back "to perfect its case". In July, the City sought leave to appeal the OMB decision to the Ontario Superior Court, but at the same time decided to proceed with the re-evaluation as ordered in the OMB decision. The Ontario Superior Court rejected the City's motion.

Early this year, the City selected R. V. Anderson to conduct the re-evaluation. We are very concerned about the City's choice and its plans for the re-evaluation for several reasons. The City's work plan and the OMB's instructions differ on several significant points. Most significantly, the City is seeking to limit the information subject to the re-evaluation, whereas the OMB instructed the City to conduct "a thorough re-evaluation of the two lead high tech on-site options using the best available evidence, secured from the proponents of the systems where applicable". The proponents have yet to be consulted.

R. V. Anderson will be reviewing the work of the City's consultants, Connestoga Rovers and Associates (CRA). In a recent, remarkably similar situation involving pipe versus high tech, on- site sewage treatment in King City, CRA reviewed the work of R. V. Anderson. Given this relationship, R. V. Anderson does not have the appearance of disinterest required by the 0MB.

In the ongoing investigation of the City's conduct, several facts have become very clear.

The City has spent $8.5 million (close to $11 million with interest), or $25,000 for every one of the 440 households in Munster, but has yet to put a shovel in the ground to solve the problem with the inadequate sewage lagoons and spray fields. Any solution to the problem will, of course, be in addition to this figure.

The City also has a problem with the Richmond to Glencairn sewer pipeline. The sewage becomes septic en route and produces hydrogen sulfide, which is corroding the pipe and the Glencairn pumping station.

Reliable sources amongst concerned City staff state that the City's Operations Department feels that securing additional sewage flow, by importing Munster's sewage, must be used to solve the problem with the Richmond to Glencairn pipeline, regardless of cost or consequences. The added sewage flows will require an additional booster pumping station between Richmond and Glencairn. The cost is $2.5 million, which has not been factored into the cost of the Munster pipeline.

The addition of Munster's sewage to Richmond's sewage may solve the problem of septic sewage in the Richmond to Glencairn line, but it requires the building of another long, low-flow pipeline from Munster to Richmond that will likely have its own problems with septic sewage.

The residents of Munster had been led to believe that the lagoons would not be required for the pipe option (Hence the strong desire for the pipe option amongst a minority of the community). Actually, both Munster and Richmond will require sewage lagoons for the operation of the pipelines. The City has recently convinced the MOE to reaffirm its certificate of approval to again operate the Richmond lagoons as a sewage works, and is currently "upgrading" them.

For the Munster pipeline, the total costs are likely in the neighborhood of $14.5-17.5 million ($12-15 million for pipe, plus $2.5 million for booster pumping station). But Munster's sewage problems could be solved for much less with a high tech, on-site treatment facility that would cost only $3.1 million. Furthermore, for an additional $6- 7 million for the same kind of high tech, on-site treatment facility (but sized to Richmond's needs), the City can solve its problems with the Richmond to Glencairn pipeline and the Glencaim pumping station. Thus, for less than the cost of the proposed Munster pipeline alone, the City can solve several problems at once.

The City's ROPEC facility is the second largest polluter of water in the province. In the not-too- distant future, the City will be required to convert its secondary sewage treatment facility to a tertiary facility. The original cost of ROPEC was $350* million (so I am told), so its conversion to a tertiary facility will be very costly indeed. The installation of local, high tech treatment facilities in Munster and Richmond will incrementally reduce the cost of conversion of the ROPEC facility when the time comes.

If the City took every possible opportunity from now on to install small, local, high tech treatment facilities throughout the region, it would significantly reduce the eventual conversion costs of the ROPEC facility in the future. In addition, added growth would not carry the heavy penalty of additional pollution to the Ottawa River.

 

Friends of the Jock River · Box 764 · Richmond, ON · K0A 2Z0
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*Correction of earlier typo. (B.F.)