New sewage plant set for 2005

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Less than two years from now, Iqaluit could have a new multi-million-dollar sewage treatment plant, if the city’s engineer gets his way.

Brad Sokach said he hopes construction teams and engineers will begin work this summer and put the final touches on the new plant by the fall of 2005.

Aside from the importance of dealing with what he called the city’s “white elephant,” Sokach said current pressure on the city’s lagoon has made the plant project a priority for the current administration.

“We’d like to get rid of the sewage lagoon, more than anything else,” Sokach said. “It’s an environmental issue.

“Our sewage lagoon is designed for a far smaller population than we have now. So we don’t get the level of treatment that most communities do.”

The new plant would actually be an addition to the skeleton of the sewage processing building that stands next to the sewage lagoon as testament to one of the city’s biggest boondoggles. Four years ago, Iqaluit spent more than $7 million on the plant, only to find its concrete tanks were leaking, and floor of the electrical room was sagging.

Since then, the city has spent thousands more to pay for reports on what went wrong and how to proceed. The lack of a sewage treatment plant has also forced the city to pay a fine to the federal government for polluting Frobisher Bay when the city’s overused lagoon spilled over.

The news of progress doesn’t come cheap. The revamped plant, recommended in the engineering report presented to council on Nov. 26, will cost an estimated $5.5 million to set up. Sokach said the money for the new treatment plant was earmarked in the capital plan approved by ratepayers last year.

Sokach points out the engineering firm that will carry out the project has yet to be chosen, and will ultimately decide on the final design. He said last month’s report was meant to tell administration what kind of technology should be used and how much it will cost.

“The purpose of that report [last month] was to put us on track,” Sokach said.

The engineer who wrote last month’s report said his recommendations were the cheapest and most reliable option. An earlier report showed it would cost only $820,000 to complete the current plant in its original design, but would then cost up to $900,000 in annual operating expenses because of the complex technology involved. The newly designed plant would cost about $400,000 to run, less than half of the original forecast.

The new plant will also take Iqaluit’s northern needs into account much better than the last design.

Barry Rabinowitz, a consultant with the southern engineering firm CH2M HILL, which produced last month’s report, says his report suggests the city use a simpler technology that will be easier to maintain and operate – and won’t require wood chips.

Rabinowitz said the existing technology in the plant – referred to as highly automated, membrane technology – was extremely high quality, but was part of an apparatus meant for a region where cheap forestry products are readily available.

Rabinowitz compared the situation to the city buying a Ferrari when it needed a pickup truck. He speculated that previous city councils were poorly informed on engineering issues.

“It’s not bad technology,” Rabinowitz said. “However, it wasn’t the right technology.

“They [previous councils] didn’t know what they were getting into.”

Rabinowitz’s report recommends the city budget a further $1.2 million to expand the plant’s capacity over the next 20 years. His plan would also salvage parts from the old plant, also he couldn’t say how much money this would save.

City administration hopes to award the contract by January.