Sewer repairs
Sewer board asks municipalities to dump money into broken sewer forcemain
Its going to be expensive but Lambton Shores and South Huron have no choice but to dump dollars into a corroded forcemain at their jointly owned sewer facility. The total fee estimate for the engineering and contract administration is $111,581.50.
The Mollard Line Forcemain is a joint asset owned by Lambton Shores and South Huron and is operated through a tri-party agreement. Under this Agreement, Lambton Shores acts as the Administering Authority for the
operation and maintenance of the line. The capital costs associated with this project will be split on a fifty-fifty basis as per the Agreement.
The issue is a section of the Mollard Line forcemain that has to be fixed and the Grand Bend Joint Sewer Board (GBJSB) has given their okay to ask the councils to enter into an agreement for engineering services.
The Mollard Line Forcemain carries sewage from the main Grand Bend Pumping Station (PS2) (at the end of Gill Road) to the Grand Bend Sewage Treatment Facility. Since redirecting the sewage from the lagoon
system to the new treatment facility, the forcemain has experienced three (3) major failures due to corrosion. The most recent failure occurred on April 16th, 2017 (Easter weekend).
At the June 24th, 2016 meeting of the GBJSB, a staff report was presented to the Board outlining the issues with the forcemain. As a result of this report, the Board authorized the engagement of an engineer to complete an assessment and a preliminary design for the forcemain. Through a competitive RFP process GM BluePlan was awarded this work. GM BluePlan has now completed this work and has determined the likely cause of the failures and the sections of forcemain that have likely been impacted by corrosion. An exploratory dig was carried out by staff on May 3rd, to ascertain the condition of the pipe in this area.
“Once the pipe was exposed and examined, it was deemed to be in excellent condition, and therefore only the section of pipe in the vicinity of the past failures is being recommended for replacement. The new section of forcemain along Mollard Line will be constructed off of the road allowance in the grass ditch in order to avoid road reconstructing and allow the existing forcemain to remain in service during constructions,” explained Steve McAuley, Lambton Shores Director of Community Services.
The total fee estimate for the engineering and contract administration is $111,581.50.
“At this point the best estimate for the cost of replacement, including engineering, is $800,000. The final cost will not be known until a construction tender is accepted. Lambton Shores costs for this project will be recovered through current sewage reserves or future Lambton Shores sewage usage rates.
The Grand Bend Pumping Station (PS2) is located on Main Street East (Grand Bend Line) in Grand Bend, within the Municipality of Lambton Shores. Originally constructed in 1978, the pumping station conveys sewage from the Grand Bend area to the GBWWTF via the Mollard Line Forcemain. The Mollard Line Forcemain is a 350 mm diameter ductile iron forcemain that extends from PS2 approximately 3,200 meters alongMain Street and Mollard Line to the GBWWTF. The forcemain was installed in 1978 and is now 39 years old.
The Lakeshore Advance asked McAuley if this delay your approvals for future and pending commercial
development?
He said, “No, the pipe is either working or not. Delaying development would not help the problem with the pipe because the flows are pumped through the pipe from the pumping station in Grand Bend. The pumps are either on or off, the only thing that would change with additional flows add would be how long they run each cycle.”
As to what the time line is, McAuley said, “Staff’s proposal will be to undertake the construction in September. We have Board approval to move forward with detail design and tendering, but we will still need approval to award a contract to do the construction.”
The dollars are not budgeted as they did not know there was a problem until the plant was finished.
“There was no way to tell that the inside of the pipe had suffered such a high amount of corrosion in the area that failed. When we directed the flows to the new plant it increased the pressures slightly and it ruptured the pipe.
Lambton Shores will use sewer use charges to pay for the capital work, like we would do with other capital sewage
projects here,” he explained.
As to whether there were concerns surrounding possible spills, McAuley said, “When the pipe breaks, there is a small amount that might enter the ditch, but we have been able to manage it by reducing flows to a minimal
rate and using our vac truck to suck up anything that has made it to the ground. The failures are all reported to the Ministry of Environment spills action line so they are aware of the repair effort.”