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NEW CAPERS?: IDLC hoping to move out to Cape Roger Curtis
Thursday, October 15, 2020 • A1
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 AN AWFUL TIME
VOL. 46 NO. 47
BIUndercurrent
Islander shares a new, terrible, on-island cycling route PAGE 3
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Sewage stress
SYSTEM NEEDS $7.6 MILLION LONGTERM OVERHAUL BRONWYN BEAIRSTO
Editor@bowenislandundercurrent.com
UNDERCURRENT PHOTO
MEMORIAL GARDEN CLEANUP: Anne Franc de Ferrière, André Chollat (who are in the same bubble),
Louise Davis and Jacqueline Bell-Irving, members of the Bowen Island Memorial Garden Society, hard at work tidying up the Memorial Garden in anticipation of Remembrance Day. Not pictured: Kevin Boggan, IPS students and Judi Gedye.
The Snug Cove Wastewater Treatment Plant is at capacity and is looking at a $3.6 million expansion to meet short-term needs. Bowen Island Municipality’s director of engineering Patrick Graham laid out the plight of the plant in a committee of the whole meeting Oct. 13. The system, built in 1999 and expanded in 2011, serves approximately 430 people (92 connections), likely to increase to 700 people in the short term, said Graham’s staff report. Like the municipal water systems, the sewage system is user-funded, so it’s separate from general municipal spending. In the short-term, the plant needs “additional off-line equalization storage capacity, a fourth bioreactor, a new screening vault with a second screen added, additional UV disinfection capacity, and potentially an increase in backup generator capacity,” says the staff report. It goes on to say that one of the three bioreactors has been used as off-line equalization storage since 2017 and as such has been running at 75 per cent capacity. More such storage is the most-pressing plant need. However, with more density planned and expected in the Cove and a population projections of up to 1,140, the cost of the long-term project is estimated at $7.6 million. BIM’s first step is to do preliminary design work, which is where council will need to make a decision: the cost for a short-term preliminary design would be about $170,000 whereas a long-term design would probably be twice that, said Graham. “There [are] some advantages to looking at a comprehensive design process that looks at the planning and phasing and design for the entire suite of upgrades that are going to be needed,” he said. But that’s not where the costs end. CONTINUED ON P. 11
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12 years
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