Tag Archives: waste water treatement

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Grant Application to Ontario government for waste water treatment plant due Oct 21

The Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF3) grants are due Friday, October 21.  The Village is requesting the maximum amount of $2 million – of which 90% will be grant.  I believe that our application is very strong.  We are adding an updated Asset Management Plan, which has become a significant component to these applications over the past 12 months.

I have been asked several times over the past few months what you, the residents and business owners, can do to help support our application.  At a recent Committee of the Whole meeting, I agreed with the request to provide a sample outline of a letter to the Minister of Infrastructure that could be included in our submission.

If you wish to send correspondence or speak directly to Minister Chiarelli, here is his email and toll free telephone number.

bob.chiarelli@ontario.ca                 Toll-free: 1-800-268-7095

For anyone who wants to have a letter included in our submission, you can drop it off at Town Hall or send directly to nbressee@villageofwestport.ca.  Below is a suggestion only.

The Honourable Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Infrastructure

900 Bay Street, 5th Floor, Mowat Block

Toronto, Ontario, M7A 2E1

Dear Minister Chiarelli

I am a resident or business owner  (check one) in the Village of Westport.  Our municipal waste water treatment plant has been the subject of a Class C – Municipal Environmental Assessment, received support from the MOECC to proceed with the approved alternate solution and recently was given approval by Municipal Council after reaching the 70% completion stage of the detailed design.

The existing system is called Snowfluent, which treats effluent by turning it into snow.  Well, that is how it is supposed to work.  For a variety of reasons, it has not worked very well for the past several years.  Since 2014, the village has found it necessary to haul effluent to another treatment facility – approximately $800,000 worth of haulage – instead of dumping the waste into Upper Rideau Lake.

We are a small community of under 700 full time residents and need your help for the proposed rehabilitation of the waste water treatment plant, which will remove the public safety concerns and the moratorium on new builds and allow my village to grow.

Please support our OCIF3 application.  Our community is depending on you.

Yours truly,

 

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Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF) grants announced Friday, July 8

Good news from Queen’s Park was received on Friday in relation to potential funding for the waste water treatment plant.  The long awaited announcement arrived stating that applications for OCIF grants for 2017/18 could be submitted.  Closing date for applications is 5 p.m on October 21, 2016.  Decisions are made and municipalities notified in early February 2017.

The Village received a grant from OCIF in 2015/16 and this was the same grant fund that turned us down in 2016/17.  I am optimistic that, after reviewing the criteria for this year’s (17/18) grant, Westport’s application should be accepted.

 

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Hauling from the lagoons ends this week

You will stop seeing the trucks on the highways and parking lots this week.  The contract was to haul 30,000 cubic metres of effluent from our lagoons to another municipality’s processing plant and I expect the last truck to make its run today.  The hauling has lowered the large lagoon from a height of 178 cm of effluent to 150 cm.  I had hoped to get it lower – but lots of rain, inflow and infiltration this spring has worked against us.

We will monitor the situation closely over the next few weeks and are hopeful that we will not need to haul anymore this spring.  The only bright side is due to so little processing taking place at the plant this winter, there was very little snow to melt.  This optimistically means that the spring summer application can begin earlier than other years.  We are waiting for the site to dry out at which time staff can lay out the summer pipes and generator and begin.  We are hoping for a mid-May start date.

Will keep you posted on when that occurs.  If you have any questions, please contact the Councillor of your choice or me at 613-273-9195.

 

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Federal Budget and provincial government grant update

I watched with hope for the Village as the Liberals unveiled their federal budget yesterday.  The details are sketchy, however there is mention of green infrastructure grants for waste water treatment plants ($.50 from the municipality for each $1.00 from the government).  MP Gord Brown is also working on our behalf to learn about the criteria and time lines.  We will be awarding the contract for the detailed plans of the subsurface dispersal system to an engineering consulting company at our Council Meeting on April 4.  The RFP has closed and a team of technical people are reviewing the submissions.  The timing is good for us to make this grant application as we will soon be “shovel ready”.

Mr Bryce and I have concluded our meetings with the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.  I would summarize their comments after hearing our appeal for this year’s OCIF 2 grant – that they have heard about our serious concerns and encouraged us to apply for OCIF 3 grant in April/May ($.90 for each $1.00) – there is no money left for this construction year.  We were also encouraged to ask to carry over the remaining portion of our OCIF 1 grant into 2017 when we apply for OCIF 3.  No promises were made, however we never heard the word “no” in regards to moving forward.

Please call if you have questions or concerns.

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Update on MOECC charges

In August 2015, the Village of Westport received 2 summons informing it that the Municipality had been jointly charged with Mr Scott Bryce, Clerk/Treasurer.  The first charge relates to activity at the waste water plant from December 1, 2013 to June 15, 2014 and the second charge is for the period between June 12, 2014 and June 15, 2014.

I want to keep you informed on what is happening in relation to the charges.  After meeting with the Village lawyer on two separate occasions, Council passed a motion to vigorously defend the Municipality and Mr Bryce against these charges.  This means that there will be a trial later this year.  To say anything more about the details of the cases would be inappropriate as the matter is before the courts.

I can update you, though, on what the process will be moving forward until the trial.

On March 21st – Mr Tony Fleming, representing the Village and Mr Bryce, has a pretrial meeting with the Provincial Prosecutor in the Justice of the Peace Chambers in Brockville.  This meeting is administrative – to discuss the anticipated length of the trial. The results of the pre-trial allow the Court Administration to find consecutive  court dates the trial.

On April 20th – Mr Fleming will appear in Provincial Offences Court in Brockville to set the date for the trial.  This court appearance and the trial are open to the public.
If any of these dates change, I will keep you updated.