Residents of Cumberland will be asked to vote yes or no on whether the village should borrow up to $4.4 million to upgrade its liquid waste treatment system. The question will be on local election ballots Oct. 20. File photo.
Cumberland residents will be asked to vote yes or no to the village borrowing up to $4.4 million dollars from the province to improve its liquid waste treatment system.
The question will be on the municipal election ballot Oct. 20.
Cumberland officials say the village is looking to borrow $1.2 to $4.4 million to construct an upgraded lagoon sewer treatment plant.
The new system would meet provincial standards and Cumberland has applied for federal and provincial grants to cover the rest of the $9.7 million project.
The village says the improvement would handle waste in a better environmental fashion for the next two decades.
“This solution is the result of nearly two years of planning by community volunteers, technical experts and agencies and moving it forward will address a significant issue in our community’s infrastructure,” Cumberland Mayor Leslie Baird said in a release.
Cumberland officials say they have received enforcement notices over the past two years for wastewater treatment not meeting environment ministry regulations, and an advisory of potential fines has been issued this year.
The community’s partially treated sewer treatment sees effluent discharged to Maple Lake Creek and then flows to the Trent River and into Baynes Sound.
The upgraded lagoon is planned to discharge to wetlands north of the lagoon and continue to the Maple Lake Creek watershed.
The village says the final treated water to the wetland area would restore natural summer “wet” conditions to the drained area as water flows to Maple Lake Creek.
Other improvements include aeration capacity increased in the lagoon, removal of phosphorus and disinfection would be used to treat water for removal of contaminants such as pharmaceuticals.
Cumberland says the disinfection process is “fish friendly”.
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