At this time next year, the township’s wastewater operations could look very different – both on paper and in reality.
The addition of an extra lagoon cell should be completed by the fall and last week officials announced an important step in moving towards increasing discharge capacity at the Drayton plant.
Chief Administrative Officer and Clerk Patty Sinnamon announced at last week’s council meeting the Ministry of the Environment has approved Mapleton Township for a discharge rate of 750 cubic metres per day.
She told the Advertiser the wastewater plant, which accepts waste from Drayton and Moorefield homes, is “rated” for 650m³/day, and the current certificate of approval is for 750. However, due to issues at the plant – elevated phosphorous or ammonia levels developed over the winter and led the MOE to partially or completely suspend spring discharges in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2008 – and the lack of an aeration system as required by the certificate of approval, the township had not received formal approval for the 750m³/day rate.
The plant has now enjoyed three full years at that discharge rate with no issues – “We’ve been very fortunate,” Sinnamon said – and the aeration system was installed in 2009.
But she stressed the recent MOE decision is really just providing approval for what is already taking place at the plant. “It’s not giving us any more capacity,” she said.
And neither is the extra lagoon cell, which is expected to cost about $1.6-million (not including land purchase).
The extra cell was required as part of a contingency plan that will ensure, in case the MOE suspends spring discharge, that there is enough storage at the plant to accept sewage from Moorefield and Drayton users until the fall discharge period (Oct. 1 to Dec. 31).
Sinnamon said the township is currently applying for a certificate of approval to facilitate the lagoon construction, and she expects tender documents to be ready for council’s next meeting on May 24.
Councillor Mike Downey had questioned why the tender documents were taking so long to prepare, noting the “scope of the work” had not changed.
“You definitely want to be done by October,” Downey said of the construction of the new cell.
Sinnamon said the process was delayed due to the land purchase, and she expects construction to begin around the middle of July.
Once the certificate of approval is received for the new cell, the township would then seek approval for a discharge rate of 950m³/day, which the township set as a goal over three years ago.
“We’ve always maintained that what we’re discharging into the river is … cleaner than what is there,” Sinnamon said. “We’re actually improving [the water quality].”
An extensive monitoring study conducted in 2003-04 found that:
– the Conestogo River has elevated levels of phosphorous, nitrate, and E. coli bacteria, but the problems already exist up stream of the Mapleton pollution control plant and are not caused by the plant;
– there is “more than adequate” capacity in the Conestogo River to allow the average flow rate to increase to 950 cubic metres a day; and
– proposed changes in the operation of the plant “will maximize the use of available dilution capacity in the stream, reduce the accumulation of nutrients in the reservoir prior to summer, and result in an overall improvement in river quality.”
Therefore, the “assimilative capacity report” concludes, discharge rates should be allowed to increase to an average daily rate of 950 cubic metres.
Sinnamon said the township is hopeful that report, combined with three years of uninterrupted discharges, as well as input from the Grand River Conservation Authority, will be enough to convince the MOE to grant the increase in discharge capacity.
She hopes to receive approval by the end of the year.
