$18M Thornbury wastewater plant expansion should be complete by 2024

The Town of The Blue Mountains (TBM) has secured an engineering firm to move forward with its $18 million expansion of the Thornbury Wastewater Treatment Plant.

IBI Group will be responsible for the design and construction of the equipment for the expansion, which was originally approved in the 2020 capital budget.

The project will bring the treatment plant's capacity to 5,330 cubic metres per day, up from the current 3,580 cubic metres per day, and it will service Lora Bay on the west and Hidden Lake Road on the east, including Thornbury, Camperdown, Peaks Bay and Delphi Point.

The work being carried out in the project includes:

• Construction of an additional extended aeration tank, including the aeration system, alum addition and required accessories;
• Construction of an additional clarifier and its associated mechanical system;
• Upgrades to the current ultraviolet disinfection system to meet the plant’s extended capacity;
• The replacement of existing air blowers, including the required valves, controls, instrumentation and distribution piping;
• Installation of an additional mechanical screen capable of processing 14,000 m3/day;
• Optimization of energy efficiency throughout the Treatment Plant.

With anticipated growth in the coming years, and equipment reaching the end of its life, town staff said the project is integral to maintaining service levels for the community in years to come.

“The expansion of the Thornbury Wastewater Treatment Plant is a key project for the municipality,” said director of operations Shawn Carey in December 2021. “The work being completed will ensure the plant is capable of providing reliable service to our community for years to come, while also maximizing the facility’s energy efficiency.”

As per the 2020 budget, $16.2 million of the costs will be covered through development charges, with the remaining $1.8 million coming from the wastewater asset replacement reserve fund.

The budget includes $15 million for construction, with engineering and contingency funds coming in at $1.5 million each.

Design for the project will be completed in 2022, with construction anticipated to be finished by late 2024.

The expansion is the latest in a series of wastewater projects being carried out by the town.

In 2020, the town began replacing the Thornbury wastewater treatment plant's failing headworks, which remove inorganic debris from municipal wastewater.

“The Thornbury treatment plant has been struggling. This year has not been a successful year. We have had many issues,” said manager of water and wastewater services Allison Kershaw in February 2020. “We are seeing [elevated] E.coli levels and the reason we are seeing this, the headworks has totally failed and we are having to bypass them the majority of the time. We are also quickly reaching the capacity of the plant."

Originally budgeted as a $3 million project, council reluctantly approved an unanticipated $1 million in additional costs to the headworks replacement budget in February 2020.

“I think we need to take a good hard look at this file and this particular project, find out what went wrong, why it went wrong and how we don’t do it again," said councillor Rob Sampson regarding the headworks project. "This is an embarrassment to try and explain to the taxpayer. We shouldn’t be this far off with these projects. Clearly, we need to learn from what mistakes were made collectively on this file and never do it again.”