Facing skyrocketing costs, the City of Duncan has decided to stop construction of the Joint Utility Board's Outfall Relocation Project until senior levels of government kick in more funding for the infrastructure initiative.
The cost of the project, which will see a new pipe built from the Joint Utility Board’s sewage treatment plant near Duncan to the proposed new outfall location in Satellite Channel, outside of Cowichan Bay, has ballooned from $27.4 million in 2016 when it was first planned to $95 million today.
The Municipality of North Cowichan and the City of Duncan co-own the sewage treatment plant and are partners in the outfall project, and North Cowichan’s council is also expected to soon decide to stop construction of the project until the province and the federal government commit more funding after North Cowichan’s director of engineering Clay Reitsma provided an update on Jan. 16 to the board.
The project had received a $12-million government grant in 2017, but without additional funding from senior levels of government, the cost for both municipalities would be $83 million, and Coun. Garry Bruce, Duncan’s representative on the board, said at the city council meeting on Jan. 27 that the costs have risen “beyond the pale.”
He said all the members of the board agree that the numbers are so huge that Duncan and North Cowichan can’t afford to deal with the issue without more financial assistance.
“The agreement with Cowichan Tribes was to get the effluent out of the river by a certain time and I think we’re passed that,” Bruce said. “But I think [Cowichan Tribes] recognize that we have done everything we can as a joint-utility group to try and accomplish that with a dollar value in mind, and it’s gotten so huge, the numbers so massive, that we’ve asked for a reprieve for some time so we can get a funding model of one-third federal, one-third provincial, and one-third local. So we want to hold off until we get the funding from the big boys.”
The Joint Utility Board’s sewage treatment plant is a hybrid secondary/tertiary facility that treats wastewater from North Cowichan, Duncan, Cowichan Bay, Eagle Heights and Cowichan Tribes.
The plant, located on Cowichan Tribes lands, is operated by North Cowichan and discharges highly treated effluent into the Cowichan River.
From there, the effluent flows down the river and through the ecologically sensitive Cowichan estuary into Cowichan Bay.
This project will relocate the outfall from the river to a deep-sea site in Satellite Channel, which has considerably more dilution for the effluent.
The change has been prompted by several years of severe drought that have drastically reduced summer flows in the Cowichan River, leaving some of the diffusers that dilute wastewater coming from the JUB’s sewage lagoons high and dry.
A lease agreement with Cowichan Tribes for the land where the treatment plant is located includes a commitment to move the outfall from the river by 2021.
While the City of Duncan decided to stop construction of the project at its meeting on Jan. 27, council directed staff to complete the design and approvals acquisition for the effluent pump station, terrestrial pipe, and marine pipe.
