Mayor wants feds to contribute to plant upgrades

The Harbour Solutions project may be complete for now, but it’s just the beginning, says Mayor Peter Kelly.

It’s expected to cost $90 million to get our waste treatment plants to meet upcoming national standards, and Kelly thinks Ottawa should foot most of the bill.

“If the federal government is changing standards across the country, then we also want them to bring some money with them,” said Kelly.

“Don’t demand a higher level without bringing the resources to help municipalities get there. It is not going to be a cheap process across the country.”

Currently the harbour water goes through “advanced primary” treatment, where it is chemically cleaned and disinfected. But new environmental benchmarks demanding secondary treatment are expected to become law within the next year or two — they’re currently before the House of Commons.

Secondary treatment involves using bacteria that feed on the sewage. Another step — tertiary treatment — involves putting the water through a filtering process such as a sand filter.

The $90 million cost to upgrade would likely be much higher, except the sewage treatment plants were built with upgrades in mind. They’re designed to easily accommodate for secondary treatment.  

There may be improvements on the swimming side as well.

The new plants have helped parts of Halifax Harbour reach current safety levels for swimming. Black Rock Beach and Dingle Beach were recently reopened to swimmers for the first time in decades, but have since been closed twice due to heavy rain causing sewage to leak into the water.

Kelly said this problem should also be alleviated in the coming years as the city works towards separating rainwater from sewage. Holding tanks are planned be built to slow stormwater from overflowing.