Some new information on Sechelt's wastewater treatment plant was given to about 50 residents who came to a technical review session July 16 at the Seaside Centre.
"This is the beginning of a series of technical workshops that will engage you folks as construction progresses on the wastewater treatment plant," said Sechelt's CAO Ron Buchhorn, who chaired the meeting July 16.
He noted council would not attend any of the technical meetings.
"If you have political statements and concerns, we have a council meeting tomorrow evening [July 17], as most of you are aware, and most of you are pretty good at expressing yourselves at those meetings, so that's your opportunity to let council know how you feel about the wastewater treatment plant," Buchhorn said.
Following Buchhorn's statement, project coordinator Paul Nash, owners' technical consultant with Tetra Tech Larry Sawchyn, contractor Andrew Ambrozy of Maple Reinders, Gerry Hanson of Veolia Canada and Don Nash, design engineer with Urban Systems, gave an overview of the project to date.
One important question answered during the presentation was why Ebbtide was chosen when Lot L on Dusty Road had previously been purchased for a new treatment plant.
"We analyzed both sites independently. We didn't know the history of it, we had no knowledge of that and there's two main reasons why we selected Ebbtide," Ambrozy said. "One was an engineering solution. All the infrastructure, all the piping, everything leads to Ebbtide."
He said there were also cost savings at Ebbtide by avoiding pumping sewage to a higher elevation on Dusty Road.
"The problem was at the time we were having difficulty fitting a treatment plant on the land that was available in the corner of the site [at Ebbtide] and that was when we brought Organica and Veolia into the picture. We were able to design a plant that would reduce the footprint size by 20 per cent so that enabled it to fit," Ambrozy said.
Sawchyn, who helped develop the request for proposals, added that two of the five short-listed bidders picked the downtown location.
"The specification kind of nudged everybody towards going to Lot L, but if you came up with something special and we were able to evaluate it at Ebbtide, that would be an acceptable location," Sawchyn said.
When the floor was opened for questions the first speaker queried the capacity of the new plant, which on paper looks to be not much more than is currently available at Ebbtide.
Nash said water usage is on the decrease province-wide so flows should go down, while Sawchyn said the Doppler measurements were off at the old plant.
When asked for the exact measurements and the flow plans for the new plant by one resident, Nash said that information couldn't be released yet.
"This stuff is still in the design finalization right now," Nash said. "More technical information will be released in due course."
Another important part of the process yet to be finalized is the contract with Salish Soils to take the biosolids left over at the end of the treatment process.
Nash said the community could expect to see "two to five truckloads" of biosolids taken to the local composter weekly. In addition, another two to five truckloads of sludge will come down to the Ebbtide plant from the other existing treatment plant on Dusty Road, which will continue to accept trucked in sewage from the entire Sunshine Coast.
Some wanted to know exactly what kind of plants would be used in the Organica process, but Hanson was unsure, saying only that they would be plants native to the area.
He said the greenhouse would be kept at a minimum temperature of six degrees Celsius but that heat lamps would not be used and no lights would be left on at night.
As for the soil conditions on site, Don Nash said there was a lot of peat that was removed and replaced with "structural fill" that will create a strong foundation for the new treatment plant, which will be built to withstand an earthquake.
"Wastewater facilities are designed to be there if you have an earthquake," he noted.
Buchhorn ended the two-hour meeting by saying similar meetings would be held as construction progresses and that the District would schedule tours of the plant's construction for interested residents in the future.
In a follow up report to council at their regular meeting July 17, Paul Nash went over some more facts about the build for elected officials.
He said developers have decided to keep an extra building on site in order to use it as a public facility in the future.
The service building will see its lower level transformed into a public washroom.
The decision changed the landscape plan slightly and also saved about $70,000, Nash reported.
He said all the "bulk excavation is done" at the site and noted the last compacting of soil would be completed on July 19.
"Then it is done until they start backfilling around the building, which will probably be spring next year," Nash said.
He noted the week of July 22 would see the "formwork done" and that concrete would start being poured "shortly after."
"Then pretty much for the rest of the year we're just pouring concrete," Nash said.
At this point Nash hopes to have the new plant fully operational by Oct. 27, 2014, although he noted the date could change.
