After delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic and Prince Rupert's water crisis, the city is finally ready to go ahead with its wastewater treatment pilot project.
By federal mandate, Prince Rupert must start treating its effluent by 2030, but the city says a traditional wastewater management facility would be too costly. So, in 2020, the city conducted a feasibility study for what is called a "biofilter-based wetland system."
Jennifer Massig, CEO of Magna Engineering Services, the contractor engaged to implement the pilot described it as "a sub-surface engineered wetland that provides an easy-to-maintain wastewater treatment system.”
In very basic terms, a substrate of mulch, sand, gravel and wood is constructed under a wetland. Solids and sediments are filtered out and the wastewater is pumped into the substrate where natural processes break down the pollutants.
If the pilot is successful, it is being touted as a "green and innovative solution" to Prince Rupert's sewage treatment requirements.
It is being funded by a $4-million grant from Natural Resources Canada (NRC) under the Green Municipal Fund managed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
As originally conceived, the pilot would have been conducted in the Omineca area of the city, but in January of this year, Magna came back to city council with a proposal to change the location to the Moresby Pond area.
The advantages to this location are that the city already owns all accesses to the property and there is an existing tie-in to the sewer system that has already been separated from the storm water catchment.
At its Jan. 22 regular meeting, council approved the location change.
"Treatment in this area will have no impact to the use of the neighbouring trail and pond area, with all waste directed underground following straining of any contaminating materials, to be treated by natural processes beneath the ground," the city said in the meeting summary. "There will be very little visible change from the project, which will have a wetland area above, and no discernible smell."
At least one prominent city resident, however, is not convinced Moresby Park is a suitable location for the project. Terry Sawka was away during the Jan. 22 meeting when the change was made, but became concerned during the June 24 council meeting when Prince Rupert director of operations Richard Pucci gave an update that the city and Magna are ready to go ahead with detailed design for the project in August.
On July 10, Sawka met with Pucci, Mayor Herb Pond and others to express his concerns, but said he came away with more questions than answers.
Of primary concern is the potential loss of green space to prove a concept.
"So my response to that [is], so we're going to sacrifice green space for something that may work?" he said. "And how big is it going to be? Was it just going to be a small site? And this is okay, but being a devil's advocate, what are you considering a small site? Is it going to be 10 by 10 (feet) 100 by 100, 1,000 by 1,000?
Pucci said the exact dimensions are still to be determined through the design process, but said the impact to greenspace will be minimal. The proposed site is between the walking trail and the highway, where there used to be three large fuel tanks. It is already designated in the Zoning Bylaw and Official Community Plan for uses such as utilities.
"Council is very passionate and very, very straight with [its] direction that we're not to touch that trail. It's supposed to stay," Pucci said. "So, we're not going to have conflict or remove any actual trail access."
Sawka, though, is also concerned about potential contamination of the broader park area.
"What about a spill?" he asked. "You can't control how much rain falls."
Pucci responded that the system is closed. While rain may fall or flow on the surface, it cannot flow into the system, minimizing the risk of contamination.
But it's not just the pilot project that concerns Sawka. In the feasibility study, engineers identified 11 potentially viable sites around the city.
"In fact, what they said is that if this site works — and that's a big if — if it works, then they have 11 other sites that they're looking at. Instead of building an effluent treatment plant, they're gonna make these little ones all over the place.
"I'm sure taxpayers in the community would like to know what the hell's going on where. I could be building an $800,000 house and find out six months later there's going to be a sewage treatment plant next door."
That is not necessarily true, Pucci said. The 11 sites are potential sites, but how they will scale up the project to serve the whole city if the pilot is successful will be the subject of an entirely new round of planning, design and public consultation.
As an alternative, Sawka wonders what happened to the consideration of building a traditional effluent treatment facility on the waterfront.
Pucci said even back in 2014 and 2015, when that was under consideration, the cost was prohibitive at upwards of $200 million for the three plants that would be required for the city. Furthermore, he added the maintenance and operating costs of these facilities would be far greater than the passive system they are now planning on testing.
And the environmental risks are greater, he added.
Unsatisfied with these answers, Sawka intends to launch a public awareness campaign and take the city to task over a perceived lack of public consultation on the location change for the pilot and the broader plans to have multiple sites if the concept is proven.
"And then what I'm planning is getting a bunch of pamphlets and papering the area there... the Sloan [Avenue], Kootenay Avenue, Moresby, Second Avenue [area], just so people are aware of what's going on, and, you know, maybe raise enough concerns that they have a second look at it."
Pucci said he welcomes the opportunity to engage with the public on the project.
"We honestly, the mayor, myself and members of council and staff are really excited for this, we're actually really proud of it," he said.
He also sees it as a potential model for surrounding communities.
"The federal government is aware of what we're doing, the Ministry of Environment is aware of what we're doing," he said. "One of the reasons why they funded us was because they see the value in this."
