Sicamous will be on the receiving end of up to $1.2 million for needed upgrades to the district’s wastewater treatment plant.
The announcement was made last Wednesday, July 29 that the federal and B.C. governments are each kicking in one-third of the estimated $1.85 million cost of the upgrades. The funding is being delivered through the Small Communities Fund.
The remaining third is to be covered by the District of Sicamous.
“I’ve been doing so many announcements, trying to get this money rolling out before they drop the writ,” Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes said Wednesday morning during a special presentation at the wastewater treatment facility site. Mayes credited the work of district staff, the mayor and council for getting their application in.
Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo said one factor that helped Sicamous’ application is the fact that it’s home to “such a large houseboat industry, and the need of providing the opportunity for all that effluent from the houseboats to actually be treated here within the municipality.”
In January, district council received a presentation on the district’s wastewater treatment plant from Terry Underwood of True Consulting.
Underwood explained what upgrades would be needed to bring it into compliance with the district’s waste management permit, as the amount of waste being discharged into the system, particularly organics, had at peak times exceeded allowable capacity. He said the largest contributor on peak flow days was blackwater from houseboats – a point contested by some councillors.
Underwood recommended several upgrades that would allow the plant to meet the needs of the community until 2025.
Initially, the district was looking at an estimated $1.56 million in upgrades: however, collection system generators were later added for the application to the Small Communities Fund, bringing the total to $1.85 million.
District chief financial officer Kelly Bennett said the district’s third will be covered largely through reserves from development cost charges, so no money will need to be borrowed. As for a timeline, she estimated the majority of the work will be done in 2016-17.