The Town of Minto should develop a strategy to allot the limited remaining sewage treatment capacity in Palmerston, an engineer’s report recommends.
Despite on-going efforts to reduce the rates of inflow and infiltration in Palmerston’s waste water treatment system, only about 45 building lots could realistically be added to 85 previously-approved lots before pushing the system past accepted capacity limits.
While the system theoretically has enough uncommitted hydraulic reserve capacity for another 288 lots at 100 per cent capacity, ministry of environment guidelines recommend suspending building permits once 80 per cent capacity is reached.
“You wouldn’t want to push this right to the limit,” noted Dave Hicknell, of Gamsby and Mannerow consulting engineers.
Since 2008, when it became apparent the Palmerston Waste Water Treatment Plant was nearing capacity, infrastructure renewal projects “appear to have reduced the rate of inflow and infiltration,” in the system, the report states. However, while average daily flows to the treatment plant have been declining, “sources of inflow and infiltration still persist in the collection system.”
That’s due in part, Hicknell noted, to the age of Palmerston’s system.
“Because the railroad was here 100 years ago, you had enough money to build a sewage system, unlike a lot of other municipalities where the sewers were put in after the war.”
However, that leaves the community with “a very old sewage system that has high potential for leakage,” said Hicknell. Much of the infiltration is believed to come from residences and other buildings in town, which have their sump pumps and other drainage systems connected directly to the storm or sanitary sewer systems. Despite door-to-door inspections, video inspections, smoke testing and campaigns to educate residents about the consequences, in terms of limits on local development, the problem persists, say Hicknell.
“There’s no silver bullet,” he stated.
Hicknell recommended the town continue working to reduce inflow and infiltration and work on a development priorities plan in which treatment capacity is granted during the draft plan approval process on a first-come/first-serve basis.”
The report was received for information purposes at the Jan. 25 committee of the whole council meeting.
Mayor George Bridge said the update was presented partially for the benefit of new council members and would be applied during planning sessions.
