The Town of Minto is making progress with wastewater system infiltration issues that have limited development potential here for a number of years, due to a new focus on leaky manholes as a key problem source.
At the Dec. 4 meeting, Treasurer Gordon Duff provided council with an update on a program of manhole rehabilitation and lateral sewer lining that has been underway for the past year.
The town has been struggling with the infiltration problems with Palmerston’s aging sewage system since early in the 2000s. The community’s sewage plant annually experiences flow rates that exceed annual average capacity. Since 2004, the town has conducted numerous dye and smoke testing programs attempting to find the source of the problem. Until recently, the focus has been on suspected inflow from residences and other buildings in town with sump pumps and other drainage systems connected directly to the storm or sanitary sewer systems.
With existing capacity allowing for only 42 infill and 88 new development lots at the time, council passed a bylaw in April 2011 limiting development in Palmerston.
Since the manhole program began earlier this year, about half the manholes in the town have been inspected, repaired and sealed with a crystalline cement product by Sarnia-based Discount Drains.
With about half the manholes now restored, Duff said the municipality has experienced about a 30 per cent decrease in infiltration.
CAO Bill White says work already done has the water treatment system, at times, operating below 50% capacity.
“With more work next year we are hopeful that the sewage use bylaw can be rescinded or at least adjusted upwards significantly,” White stated. However, he noted, the Ministry of Environment will have to agree to the engineer’s calculation before the capacity can be officially increased. Also by treating less storm water, plant operations become more efficient with less wear and tear on pumps and other machinery “so there are many benefits all around,” White explained.
Since the problem was initially discovered, Minto has spent about $2.5 million on engineering studies and efforts to improve the situation. White estimates the town has spent about $300,000 on these latest efforts, which are proving more successful.
Deputy mayor Terry Fisk asked Mike Townsend of Discount Drains why the engineers who did previous studies didn’t “send us in your direction or make a recommendation to try that.”
Townsend said more municipalities have recently begun to initiate the same kind of manhole rehabilitation projects Minto is undertaking in Palmerston, as their sewage systems age.
Councillor Mary Lou Colwell asked if the town should anticipate doing this kind of program in Harriston and Clifford as well.
“I think it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re going to be doing this for a while,” replied Townsend.
