Consolidated Wastewater Treatment Plant - COMPLETED
Construction of Powell River's new Consolidated Wastewater Treatment Plant (CWWTP) was substantially completed in June 2023, and was formally handed over to the City's Infrastructure and Operations Department shortly thereafter. Engineering and Operations staff were initially integrated into the plant operations beginning in March 2023, as wastewater began to flow through the facility. By the time formal handover was reached, the City’s wastewater operations staff had received extensive training and were effectively managing all aspects of plant operations.
Environmental Impact
This leading-edge facility significantly improves how Powell River treats wastewater in order to minimize human impact on the marine environment.
City of Powell River Mayor, Ron Woznow"The new consolidated wastewater treatment plant has a life expectancy of 50 years. During this time, it will significantly improve the treatment of our wastewater and minimize our impact on the marine environment," said Powell River Mayor, Ron Woznow. "It also more than complies with existing effluent quality standards and we are confident it will allow the City to meet any new treatment standards." - Mayor Ron Woznow
The facility is currently exceeding Government of Canada Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER) and the BC Government Municipal Wastewater Regulations (MWR) for effluent quality standards and is designed to be upgraded to meet future treatment commitments when necessary. The CWWTP is easier to operate, maintain and administer than the three antiquated facilities it replaced.
Conveyance
Outfall in-shore end, July 2022The CWWTP treats all of Powell River's wastewater conveyed from four neighbourhoods - Wildwood, Cranberry, Townsite and Westview, and there have been discussions with Tla’amin Nation to treat their wastewater as well. For now, the City's sewage and wastewater is collected from existing systems through four new pumping stations and approximately eight kilometres of new pipe to the CWWTP for treatment, and the effluent is then discharged through a new state-of-the-art outfall, designed and engineered with enhancement of the receiving environment habitat in mind.
Funding
The City thanks the Government of Canada and the BC Government for their investment of $30,400,000 and $25,330,800, respectively, totaling $55,730,800 in joint funding. The City is grateful for the support from both senior governments.
The CWWTP is the largest public infrastructure in the City's history and is partially funded by the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). Through ICIP, British Columbia communities cost-share infrastructure investments between the Federal, Provincial and Local governments, as well as other partners.
Thanks to the Team
City of Powell River Engineering Services [from left] Manager of Engineering Services, Nagi Rizk, Tully Kurtz, Brett Osualdini, Janice McLean, Director of Operations and Infrastructure, Tor Birtig, Kyle Bombardir, and Mik Drosdovech "I have had a long career and worked in many cities with many people, and hands down this engineering team is the best.
With all the challenges we faced on this project, including the COVID-19 crisis and supply chain challenges, this team was relentless, dedicated and unwavering to bring this project to completion.
I can’t be more proud of each of them and their support for each other.
Their outstanding work has resulted in a project our City will be proud of for generations to come." - Nagi Rizk, Manager of Engineering Services
We wish to thank our consultants for overall project management; the general contractor, Graham Infrastructure, all of the subcontractors, local businesses and the women and men responsible for building the plant, constructing the linear works and installing the four pumping stations so quickly. The entire project was completed in just over two years, from May 2021 to June 2023, which is a very significant achievement.
Scope of Work
The work generally involved bulk earthworks, underground utilities, retaining walls, roadwork, structural concrete work in the Odour Control Unit (OCU), Process Building and Bioreactor Complex and a timber-framed Administration Building. Internal building components consist of process pumps, blowers, motors, valves and a significant amount of mechanical piping, electrical equipment, HVAC and SCADA control systems. Specialized process treatment systems include two high-capacity Hydro-Dyne center-flow screens, two Hydro-Dyne washing-compactors, a Veolia vortex grit-removal system, four Ovivo aerobic bioreactor aerations systems with Aerzen hybrid blowers, four Ovivo secondary clarifiers contained within Dennerik stainless-steel tanks, three Wedeco ultraviolet disinfection reactors, a Sulzer dissolved aeration flotation (DAF) system, two Ovivo digesters (with Aerzen turbo blowers), two Haus dewatering centrifuges, an Aquafy chemical dosing system, the Biorem OCU and a Claro Septage Receiving System (SRS).
This engagement is provided in accordance with City Council’s Strategic Priorities and is in keeping with the City’s commitment to the principles of openness, transparency and accountability.
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City of Powell River receives wastewater treatment update at special meeting
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If all goes according to plan, City of Powell River’s consolidated wastewater treatment plant will be processing liquid waste by the fall of 2022 and be completed by the spring of 2023, according to project consultant Associated Engineering.
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City selects general contractor for new wastewater facility
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April 21, 2021
City selects general contractor for new wastewater facility
Powell River, BC - The City of Powell River has selected Graham Infrastructure LP of Calgary, Alberta as the general contractor for the new Consolidated Wastewater Treatment Plant (CWWTP) in Townsite. A Notice of Award was sent to Graham on Friday, April 16.
At a cost of $61,016,432.65 plus GST, the contract is the largest expenditure in the City's history.
The price includes the construction of the treatment plant, the supply and installation of the novated equipment and cash allowance in the amount of $850,000 for issues that may arise during construction namely unavoidable delays, additional testing for quality assurance, design modifications upon completing the review of the shop drawings, and cash allowance for the marine portion of the outfall in the amount of $3,138,000. Cash allowance amounts are estimated and may vary upon finalizing each task.
“That was an expensive vote. It was our biggest ever,” said Dave Formosa after unanimous approval by Council.
Graham Infrastructure is at the forefront in building wastewater facilities across Canada. The company recently completed the Victoria capital region wastewater treatment facility at a total project cost of $775 million, and the Regina wastewater treatment plant for $224 million.
Powell River’s CWWTP is jointly funded by the Government of Canada for $30,400,000 (40 per cent), and the Government of BC for $25,330,800 (33.3 per cent). The grants total $55,730,800 or 73 per cent of the budgeted $76 million. The balance of 26.67 per cent will be funded by City of Powell River taxpayers.
An extensive vetting process was conducted by the Infrastructure Services/Engineering Department and oversight services contractor Associated Engineering. Three of seven proponents who provided proposal submissions were shortlisted and invited to submit tender bids for the general construction contract. Graham Infrastructure was successful, as well as submitting the lowest bid cost. (Table 1)
"We are comfortable they [Graham] can provide this job on time and on budget," said Engineering Manager, Nagi Rizk.
Read the full report to Committee of the Whole, Tuesday, April 13, 2021
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Outfall Construction
Share Outfall Construction on Facebook Share Outfall Construction on Twitter Share Outfall Construction on Linkedin Email Outfall Construction linkConstruction of the CWWTP outfall began Monday, November 23, 2020 with the arrival of the first of seven truckloads of pipe.
The timeline for the outfall construction is currently scheduled between December 1, 2020 and February 15, 2021, which is the Department of Fisheries and Ocean prescribed winter timing window of least risk for in-water construction activities, provided that environmental monitoring and proposed environmental mitigation measures are being followed to ensure compliance with the Fisheries Act and Marine Mammal Regulations.
The outfall will discharge treated effluent into the Salish Sea. We will be treating and disinfecting 100 per cent of the effluent prior to discharging to the outfall once the facility is completed as per provincial and federal regulations.
The pipeline will extend about 700 metres offshore, with approximately 650 metres suspended above the ocean floor on concrete ballast blocks, and 50 metres of pipe will be buried in the inter-tidal zone. There will be approximately 100 metres of outfall that the future CWWTP will connect to. Temporary bypasses connecting the existing Townsite Treatment Plant outfall pipes to the new CWWTP outfall are currently proposed by the contractor.
The outfall construction contract was executed by the contractor, Caribou Mountain Construction (CMC) on Thursday, November 26, 2020, and Notice to Proceed was issued from Associated Engineering (AE) to CMC on Friday, November 27, 2020 following contract execution by the City of Powell River.
Caribou Mountain Construction of Alberta, a 100 per cent owned First Nation company, is the outfall contractor and has begun the mobilization of crew and equipment to the laydown area adjacent to the site.
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Work Begins
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On Wednesday, October 14, 2020 the initial phase of work on the CWWTP began, involving clearing of vegetation, grubbing of stumps, chipping of woody debris, repairing gates and installing fencing.
Augusta Recyclers of Powell River is the contractor for the work. To date, the contractor has completed the clearing and site preparation of the laydown area and the outfall site.
They have now moved onto clearing the main CWWTP footprint and were approximately 30 percent complete as of Friday, October 30, 2020. Augusta tentatively plan to have the trees felled in the remaining area of the main CWWTP footprint on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 and Thursday, November 5, 2020, or the following week, weather dependent. We anticipate that Augusta will be on-site working on the main CWWTP footprint until mid- to late November completing the tree removal, clean-up and chipping of the woody debris. The grubbing of the footprint (removal of stumps and ground vegetation) and the installation of sediment and exclusion fencing is currently scheduled to take place between March 1 and April 2, 2021.
Signage and traffic control are in place near the existing Townsite Wastewater Treatment Plant and portions of the Haul Road. Access to First Beach (also known as Second Beach and Townsite Beach) may be impeded on a periodic basis depending on work activities to ensure the safety of the public. Certain trails within the old golf course lands will be affected for the duration of the CWWTP construction with closures and detours for alternatives clearly marked.
Aerial maps of clearing and site preparation areas can be seen in the Photos section.
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Manager, Engineering Services
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Memorandum - CWWTP Queries Report to October 13, 2020 Committee of the Whole responding to correspondence and delegations regarding the CWWTP.
Photos
Videos
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JJM was contracted for the installation of 727 meters of 900mm diameter High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) marine outfall pipe onto the sea bottom, which would convey treated effluent from the new City of Powell River Consolidated Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Salish Sea Strait.