A cost breakdown of Powell River’s new Townsite wastewater treatment plant has given City of Powell River council an accounting of the project’s $67 million dollar price tag.
Estimates and final plans for the plant and its natural integration theme will be packaged into the city’s application for provincial and federal infrastructure funding calls that could come any day.
There is an urgency for the design to be completed by the city’s contractor, Associated Engineering, according to councillor and finance committee chair Russell Brewer, because the grant criteria will require detail for a project worth millions.
Associated Engineering was recently given ideas from public engagement and instructions by council to rethink costly add-ons, such as a less ambitious design for a featured living wall.
It has taken the city 20 years to reach this point of resolution in the wastewater treatment debate. In the worst case, Powell River’s submission is denied, but city officials have said that is a highly unlikely scenario.
But on the outside chance Powell River’s plan is rejected, Brewer said the project would have to be deliberated all over again.
“If we make application and we don't get funding,” said Brewer, “it would have to come back to council and the community to see if they want to carry and finance the whole thing or not.”
Brewer said he fully expects Powell River and municipalities across the country facing similar major projects to receive the money.
“There's no way they can expect local government to pick up the whole tab,” said Brewer.
The best-case scenario is for the city’s share to be 17 per cent of the project’s cost, which was the rate for the Haslam Lake main trunk construction in 2017, but that is not probable for the wastewater treatment plant, according to Brewer.
The most likely scenario is the federal government providing 40 per cent, the province coming through with 33 per cent and the city absorbing 27 per cent.
Even at 27 per cent, the city will incur a debt of $17.9 million and impact Powell River’s 7,300 sewer users with an increase of $126 per year to pay off a 30-year loan.
The third scenario, one which Brewer said he finds unthinkable, is paying for the whole thing. The cost per sewage user would be about a $473 annual increase over the 30-year term.
Treatment plant construction is $39.2 million. Approximately $5.9 million is added for general requirements, fees and contractor costs to start and complete the work.
Conveyances from Westview, along Willingdon Beach Trail and Wildwood lagoon to the new plant total $8.6 million. An inflation rate of 2.26 million is estimated.
The project cost escalates 17 per cent when factoring in contingencies of $11.3 million, including unforeseen and unexpected increases to design and construction.
The total adds up to $67,316,000, and these are Class C estimates, with a wide margin of plus or minus 25 per cent to 40 per cent.
