The Municipal Planning Commission gave the go-ahead last week to construct a $6-million wastewater lift station on 70 Avenue as part of the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission's plan to eventually treat all the area's waste at the Red Deer Wastewater Treatment Plant.
According to Sean Carter, the town's development officer who worked on the project, the application meets all of the requirements of the town's Land Use Bylaw.
A total of four concerns to the proposal were fielded from the town's community peace officers, the president of Manor Investments, the landowner of adjacent lands, the Imperial Estates Residents Association and Mountain View County.
The town's community peace officers wanted to know if the area would be fenced and exterior lights put up to prevent damage to the property, while Manor Investments was opposed to the station based on the increased truck traffic it would bring, the potential for offensive odours, the sterilization of adjacent lands, no area structure plan being brought forward for the development and the negative impacts such a facility would have on existing and future town development.
Imperial Estates residents thought the lift station could generally have a negative effect on residents of Imperial Drive, while Mountain View County was concerned about the potential truck traffic on county roads.
John Van Dousberg, the project's manager, told commissioners that mitigation strategies are in place and there will be no odour issues surrounding the lift station.
“We're very cognizant with people's concerns about odour,” he said.
The station will draw sewage into the enclosed building, and then it will be pumped out by vacuum truck, eliminating any odour issues, Van Dousberg said.
“We have really highly sophisticated air systems that will be put into the septic receiving station there … and it's negative pressure so we suck the stuff in and clean it before there's any kind of discharge. It's really a big pumping station,” he said.
If everything goes according to plan, half of the town's sewage will be dealt with at the facility by the end of 2012 and the remainder by 2016. Once all the town's sewage will be shipped there, the wastewater ponds will be eliminated, which Van Dousberg said should eliminate odour issues now experienced in that area. Sewage ponds north of town will still be used on an emergency basis once all the sewage goes to the Red Deer treatment plant in 2016.
