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The proposed septic treatment facility in La Peche will not be outdated if new federal standards are put in place within the next year, according to both the MRC des Collines de l’Outaouais and the Ottawa Riverkeeper.
Speculation has been mounting that the MRC is pushing the proposed technology through so that it will be grandfathered in when the new standards are imposed, but experts have dismissed the notion.
“That is not the case at all,” said Wakefield resident Meredith Brown, the Ottawa Riverkeeper. “The (MRC) is striving to meet federal standards.”
According to Brown, the new federal regulations regarding wastewater management, which will require that all wastewater systems be brought up to secondary treatment, are still only proposals and may not even come through. She said the current proposed system for La Peche actually goes beyond secondary treatment and includes a third or “tertiary treatment.”
Patrick Laliberte, the MRC environment adviser, also dismissed the rumours, saying that the proposed technology – an aerated lagoon system – actually integrates several technologies and goes well beyond current standards.
“There is not only one technology in this process, it’s a train of treatments,” he said. “We have a commitment to comply with federal standards for waste water treatment.”
HOW IT WORKS
According to Laliberte, the proposed treatment plant features a screening basin which will first filter solid materials, items things like condoms and other refuse that homeowners shouldn’t flush down the toilet, from the sewage. Those collected materials are trucked to a landfill.
Next, the sewage goes into a second mixing tank to create a uniform consistency. It will then go into a rotary press, which will completely separate solid matter from the liquid. The solids will be loaded into a truck and shipped to another facility, which has yet to be determined. The liquid goes into a small settling basin to remove any remaining bits of solids and contaminants.
The remaining wastewater will then go through four aerated basins to promote biological oxidation, as a compressor will pump oxygen into each of the basins. Laliberte added that the fourth basin will also include iron sulfate to remove phosphorus from the liquid.
Finally, the liquid will go into a ultraviolet (UV) tank to remove any pathogens still in the liquid. Laliberte also said it will help “reduce blooms of blue-green algae.” He added that many features of this “tertiary process” were added following public consultations held last June and this past March.
Although the system has been expanded to include extra basins and a UV tank, Brown still thinks that percolating the sewage through the ground is a much safer bet, especially since Chelsea is planning on drawing drinking water from the Gatineau in the future.
Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown speaks at a River Rally event in Wakefield earlier this year.
“It’s an age old concept to think of our rivers as sewers,” she said. “Essentially, you can manage it better through the ground.”
Laliberte disagrees. He previously told the Low Down it would be “a lot harder to monitor an effluent that goes underground than into the river.”
La Peche Mayor Robert Bussiere, who is also the MRC prefect, agreed the percolation method would be too difficult to control. He said the current proposed system will meet national standards and is “one of the best” systems to be found today. Improving the system in the future is also not out of the question.
“If five, 10 years down the road, if something comes out to improve the system, we are all for it,” said Bussiere. “We all want the best.”
There are also concerns surrounding the contamination of surface water with a percolating system, but Brown is convinced that if it were placed in the right location –away from any residential wells – it would have less of an impact on the environment.
“If you apply it to the land and let it peculate through the soil, it will eventually reach groundwater, but in very small amounts,” she said. “The amounts reaching groundwater would be way less than the amounts reaching surface water.
“There is nobody swimming, no fish and no amphibians in ground water.”
Up until the end of 2010, the MRC des Collines trucked its septage waste to Gatineau for disposal. But after the city stopped accepting the MRC sludge, the region has had to scramble for an alternative. MRC officials say the temporary solution – trucking to Cheneville, about 130 kilometers northeast of La Peche – is too costly.
Public Meeting April 21
According to La Peche Mayor Robert Bussiere, the MRC council will not be voting on the septic treatment plant at its April 21 meeting, as there too many questions needing to be answered before any OK is given.
“It won’t be approved at the next meeting,” said Bussiere, referring to both the system itself and its location either on Echo Dale Road or O’Connor Road in Farrellton. “There is way too much to go through before anything is approved.”
Bussiere and fellow MRC mayors must still to read the report on the second public consultation held in late March before any decisions are made.
Once the document is reviewed, the mayors may ask for recommendations, more input, reject it or approve it immediately. Once it’s approved, it will be made public, but Laliberte wants residents to know that the approval of the public consultation report is not the final go-ahead on the plant.
“Council has to accept it in order to make it public, but that doesn’t mean (the system) will be approved,” said Laliberte. “If it’s voted on, then council will still have to vote on their own conclusion.”