PORT MORIEN, N.S. — The Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s sewage treatment upgrades won’t spoil the scenic seaside vistas in this coastal community.
This week, the CBRM wastewater department, along with consultants from Harbour Engineering Joint Venture, held a public walkthrough detailing plans to build a future treatment plant, lift station and the pipe corridor that will connect the two.
And Matt Viva, the municipality’s wastewater department manager, said he heard one question from each of the people who came to look at the three visual renderings of the project.
“Everybody had the same question and that is are we doing anything around this beach area and inside the breakwater of the fishing wharf,” he said. “So the answer is ‘No,’ and everybody is happy about that.”
Darrin McLean of Harbour Engineering Joint Venture, a consulting consortium that includes CBCL Ltd. and Dillon Consulting, said the $97.9-million project will also include the construction of new wastewater treatment facilities and collection systems in Glace Bay, four other existing lagoons, as well as upgrades to the ultraviolet disinfection system in Sydney.
Viva said about 500 cubic metres of raw sewage flows through the lone outfall in Port Morien each day.
He said that will end once the project wraps in 2011.
“It will improve the waterway in the community — we’ll no longer be discharging untreated sewer,” he said. “I guess people won’t hesitate to swim at the beach.”
In addition to the $97.9 million announced for Glace Bay and Port Morien, $58 million has been spent to treat sewage that spills out onto the Westmount side of Sydney harbour. It has been estimated that an additional $277 million will be needed for wastewater upgrades to lower-risk systems in New Waterford, New Victoria, Donkin, Louisbourg and the Northside, which includes outfalls in North Sydney, Sydney Mines and Florence.
