City of Powell River staff have revised estimates of the phased consolidation option.
The option combines joint treatment, a proposal to treat the city’s sewage at Catalyst Paper Corporation’s Powell River mill, with a stand-alone consolidated plant. The combination of two options into one was explained in a report from Richard Stogre, manager of engineering services, dated June 16.
The report contains a series of estimates, including how much each phase would cost with or without grants from other levels of government and the impact of each option on residential property sewer charges. Council chose the phased consolidated option as the preferred option for its liquid waste management plan at a special council meeting on June 27.
On Monday, July 4, Dave Douglas, the city’s director of financial services, sent a memo to mayor and council, along with revised estimates. “In transferring the financial data to the report a couple of the numbers did not come across correctly so there are changes to the annual operating and maintenance life cycle costs,” Douglas wrote. “The average residence property information doesn’t change as the information transferred correctly from the original spreadsheet.”
Phase one of the phased consolidated treatment option, or joint treatment at Catalyst’s facility, is estimated to cost $7.8 million, without funding assistance from government. Annual operating and maintenance costs are estimated at $997,500, while the life cycle cost is about $19.2 million.
Phase two, a consolidated treatment plant, is estimated to cost about $13.3 million, with annual operating and maintenance costs estimated at $1.5 million. The life cycle costs are estimated at $32.2 million.
With government funding assistance, the city’s contribution to capital costs for phase one is estimated to cost $570,000, while annual operating and maintenance costs are $653,000 and life cycle costs are $8.7 million. Phase two is estimated to cost $4.4 million, with annual operating and maintenance costs at $820,000 and life cycle costs at about $14.6 million.
Douglas also noted in the report that about $1.7 million of asset cost would be lost when the city built a consolidated plant because it would no longer need a sewer line to a pump station at the mill.
Douglas told the Peak that the $570,000 for joint treatment includes the cost of purchasing land and other miscellaneous costs that add up to about $30,000.
In information provided to the public at a liquid waste management open house, the cost of joint treatment was estimated at $2.6 million. Douglas said that estimate was based on the city receiving two-thirds funding from government. The $570,000 estimate is based on 100 per cent funding from the provincial Innovations Fund.
The life cycle costs of the phased consolidation option, with 100 per cent funding for phase one and two-thirds funding for phase two, are estimated to be about $23.3 million. Life cycle costs for a consolidated plant with two-thirds funding assistance from government, is estimated to be about $19 million.
Douglas’s report indicates there would be a decrease of $23.65 a year to sewer fees for an average residential property in phase one without government grants and a $72.41 decrease with government grants. Douglas said council would decide how much of this decrease would be realized by taxpayers and how much would go into a reserve. “We know we have to put money into a reserve,” he said. “A portion of it would end up in a reserve.”
