Harbour Station to become part of harbour cleanup
Published Wednesday October 28th, 2009
Sewage: Officials promise sewage pumping station in prime location won't be an eyesore
SAINT JOHN - A new building to pump sewage will be constructed in the Harbour Station parking lot.
Common council approved the new location for the $6.9-million station at Monday's meeting.
It's one of 21 new lift stations being built for the city's $95-million harbour cleanup project, which will stop the city's age-old practice of dumping raw sewage into the harbour, river and creeks.
"It's a project that's very critical to the overall scheme of things," Paul Groody, the city's commissioner of municipal operations, told councillors Monday. "This is a project we need to get on with."
Staff had originally planned to build the lift station on a city-owned Smythe Street parking lot.
But staff realized the land may be needed for the proposed new Irving Oil headquarters at Long Wharf, and opted to find a new location.
Groody said the Harbour Station site will not add any cost to the project.
He also said although the station will be prominent in its new location, the building will be "attractive" and won't take away from that area of the city.
The station will capture sewage from the Douglas Avenue area, some parts of the old north end, plus the immediate area. It will then pump the sewage to the larger Marsh Creek lift station before sending it for treatment at the new east side plant, which is under construction.
"At almost $7 million, it's quite easy to see how the price of sewage treatment adds up," said Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase, who was chairing the meeting in Mayor Ivan Court's absence. Both Court and Coun. Bruce Court were away because of their father's death.
Kevin Rice, the city's deputy commissioner of municipal operations, said the Long Wharf lift station is one of several in the early stages of construction.
Tenders have closed for the Monte Cristo Lift Station and construction for the Bayside Drive forcemain was awarded in September, with work getting started in the River Avenue area.
"They're all in various stages of the process," Rice said of the project's 21 lift stations. "They'll be rolled out over the next three years."
He said construction processes take longer if land has to be acquired, which is the case, for example, with the Marsh Creek station.
Staff also has to be careful to plan construction so the lift stations operate in conjunction with the opening of the new treatment plant, he said.
The city has said harbour cleanup will be finished by 2012. The city got funding from the province and Ottawa in 2007, but since then the project costs have gone up by about $15 million.
Staff is hoping to find the extra money from interest, gas tax transfers and another $2.5 million requested from the federal government.
The rest will come from Saint John Water ratepayers.
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With all due respect, the Irving project is not a rare commercial development in this city.
The city is full of commercial development with especially on the east side. To bad the city didn't take advantage of some pre planning then to lessen the impact of those projects on there surrounding areas.