A consultant is recommending the City of Belleville spend a fair amount of money to upgrade and maintain its wastewater treatment plant over the next 20 years.
A presentation from JL Richards and Associates Senior Engineer Brian Hein on Monday estimates it will cost about $121 million, over 21 years, to complete various projects to extend the plant’s capacity and lifespan.
Manager of Engineering Ray Ford says it seems like a big price tag, but with an asset value of about $500 million, it’s important to keep the plant operating at its peak.
Ford says there are a couple of areas that they’ll get to work on almost immediately.
He added, the the work on the primary treatment tanks will hopefully begin in 2020 and finish in 2021 and the solution to the odour problem will likely involve about a year’s worth of design, with construction to follow.
Mid-term projects include trunk expansions on Coleman Street ($3.3 million) and Fahey Street ($5.3 million) and a Front Street pumping station ($32 million).
Long-term projects include pipeline expansions on Dundas St. and as in the north end, as well as some other upgrades at the plant itself.
Hein was asked about building a completely new plant, versus upgrading the current one and he said while some municipalities do go that route, it would cost at least twice as much to do that.
He says, “There’s lots of valuable infrastructure in the system that can be repaired or utilized,” and that all of these projects will fit on the current plant site and not need an expansion of space.
