Costs for the planned rebuild of an aging wastewater treatment plant in Richmond have ballooned more than five times since 2019.
That’s according to a new report by Metro Vancouver, which also notes the upgraded Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant is now expected to miss its regulatory deadline by four years.
The current wastewater treatment plant opened in 1963, and provides primary wastewater treatment – the lowest level of treatment, removing anything that settles or floats such as grease – to residents and businesses in parts of Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, UBC and the University Endowment Lands.
Households in the plant’s service area could also pay an additional $400 to $500 annually to help fund the new plant.
The new facility was still pegged at $1.9 billion as recently as 2019. However, a July 2020 report noted that estimate did “not reflect the preliminary design activity since 2018.”
Since then, “a number of challenges were identified,” according to the latest report, contributing to the new estimate of $10.4 billion, which includes contingencies.
Some of these challenges include dewatering the four sludge lagoons west of the plant, which will take about four years and must be done before construction work can start on the new facility, along with removing biosolids stockpiles east of the plant. Ground improvements are also required, which will take “several years.”
Other challenges include site access – there’s only a single-lane road, also used by cyclists and visitors to Iona Beach Regional Park – a limited working space and ensuring impacts to nearby residents and Musqueam and the Iona Island ecosystem are minimized.
A large number of permits and approvals are also required from various agencies, further risking delays.
None of this was “fully taken into consideration” when the design concept for the new facility was presented to – and endorsed by – the Metro Vancouver board in July 2020.
While the new facility will include secondary and tertiary wastewater treatment, it will fail to meet regulatory deadlines.
The federal government requires secondary treatment at all wastewater treatment plants by 2030, but this won’t happen at Iona until 2034. The project is also not expected to be fully complete until 2042.
A revised design concept will be presented to the Metro Vancouver board in November, ahead of a final decision, targeted for early 2022.
