Duane Hicks
Operations at the local sewage treatment plant have been running efficiently in the past year, with no problems to report, the Ontario Clean Water Agency told town council at last night’s regular meeting.
In 2009, the plant never had to run over-capacity and bypass water, Jamie McPherson, OCWA operations manager for Northwestern Ontario, said during a year-end report on operations there.
McPherson noted that last year, only during the months of April and May did the plant run near its capacity.
Most of the year, it ran at 75-80 percent capacity, he said.
There also were no violations, no non-conformances, and the Ministry of Environment inspector never made any comments or suggested actions.
“It’s a very nice, very clean report,” said McPherson. “You’ve got a neat plant, it’s well taken care of, and the guys have it working very, very well.”
McPherson said it’s so well run, in fact, that the OCWA, which also oversees sewage treatment plants elsewhere in the region and province, will be holding courses here in the fall—one on biological wastewater treatment and one on laboratory sampling.
“So, we’re going to bring our operators over here, bring trainers in, and allow people to see the plant, see how the plant runs,” he explained, noting it will be an opportunity to show others that they can “raise the bar.”
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said it’s been a pleasure working with McPherson and OCWA, and that the past year hasn’t seen any problems at the sewage treatment plant.
In fact, the plant saved $100,000 last year.
Also at last night’s meeting, council:
•referred a request from “Fun in the Sun” committee member Scott Turvey to donate $10,000 for fireworks at this year’s celebrations to the Administration and Finance executive committee for its recommendation;
•heard an activities report from economic development advisor Geoff Gillon for the end of the year for 2009 and the first quarter of 2010;
•passed a bylaw to authorize an amendment to an agreement for sale of certain land to Daryl’s Custom Landscapes;
•passed a bylaw to amend a bylaw to assume, stop up, and close, for the purpose of selling, part of a north-south lane south of Fifth Street East, north of the CN right-of-way between Portage Avenue and McKenzie Avenue;
•passed a bylaw to stop up and close, for the purpose of selling, part of McKenzie Avenue North, south of Fifth Street East and north of the CN right-of-way;
•passed a bylaw to authorize a licence agreement, for the purposes of utilization of the town’s geospatial data, with Centra Transmission Holdings Inc.;
•passed a bylaw to authorize entering into an agreement with Union Gas granting an easement over certain municipal land;
•passed a bylaw to approve agreements with Comprint Systems Inc. and Dominion Voting Systems for the purposes of the 2010 municipal election;
•agreed to a request from the Rainy River District Victims Services Program to proclaim April 18-24 as “National Victims of Crime Awareness Week”;
•referred a request from the Murry Snider Repair Shop (1201 Scott St.) regarding a backflow prevention device to the Operations and Facilities executive committee for its recommendation; and
•referred a request from the Community Garden Team, regarding the use of municipal property to develop a community garden, to the Planning and Development executive committee for its recommendation.
