Funding sought for upgrades

Two municipalities are working together to get government funding to update their sewage services.

Black Diamond and Turner Valley are jointly applying for the New Building Canada Fund’s small communities grant to fund two thirds of the $1.7 million needed to upgrade the Westend Regional Sewage Service Commission’s facilities.

“Westend has been a priority for some time,” said Barry Williamson, Turner Valley’s chief administrative officer. “They had some recent engineering work and realized they need to get some major upgrades. The problem with these things is they are very expensive for a little town.”

Laurie McCreary-Burke, the commission’s recording secretary, said Westend commissioned an engineering firm to assess the facilities and make recommendations for upgrades required to meet population growth and environmental legislative standards.

The Westend facilities consist of a Turner Valley lift station, equipment in the Black Diamond lift station, sewage lagoons, transfer station, blower building and about 180 acres of property in Black Diamond.

One of the most pressing needs is upgrades to the wet-well piping in the transfer station.

“The wet-well and the controls are too close together and they no longer meet code,” said McCreary-Burke. “The workers have a real hard time getting the pumps out. The Turner Valley lift station has obsolete controls because they are old. The whole facility is past 20 years. We’re mostly dealing with aging infrastructure.”

McCreary-Burke added while $56,000 was spent to remove sludge out of one cell in 2008, a more effective system is needed.

“I recommend we initiate a sludge management program that’s ongoing so we have better affluent quality and the blowers aren’t having to work as hard,” she said. “It saves on the power cost you need for your blowers.”

Other upgrades needed include replacing a blower with a more energy efficient one, repairing fencing and upgrading the electrical controls in the Turner Valley lift station, increasing the lagoon capacity to accommodate population growth and upgrading the aeration system.

McCreary-Burke said if approved, the grant would cover about $1,136,774 of the cost and require the Towns to submit invoices on a quarterly basis.

The provincial and federal governments, each of which would cover a third of the total cost through the small communities grant, must approve the invoices before reimbursing the amounts, she said.

Joanne Irwin, Black Diamond’s chief administrative officer, said she is concerned about how long it could take to receive reimbursement due to past experiences with the Building Canada Fund.

“It almost took two years to get payment for our invoices,” she said of a past project.

“It’s a ridiculous amount of time. When you think about it we have to front end the cost and maybe we get it back in a year or two.”

The commission is operated by both towns and funded through requisitions to each Town based on their respective proportion of the total annual sewage flow.

The Town of Black Diamond will be the managing partner for the project.

The Town of Turner Valley is also applying for funds through the small communities grant to repair the Windsor Avenue sewer line, estimated to cost $2 million, said Williamson.

“This line has been in the road for a long time so it has to be replaced,” he said. “It’s at the top of our priority list because of its age.

“We had the engineers do an assessment in our water and water waste lines. It’s one of the ones that’s on the top of our books.”