An open house was held last week in McGregor to discuss the possible expansion of the hamlet’s sewage system.
Presented by the Town of Amherstburg and the Town of Essex, the public information centre was conducted at the McGregor Community Centre last Tuesday night. Representatives of each of the two towns as well as Stantec were on hand, with the latter being the firm conducting the Environmental Assessment.
The lagoon system, identified as the McGregor Sewage Treatment Facility (MSTF), is located at 9420 Walker Road and was constructed in the 1980’s. The purpose of the Class Environmental Assessment (Class EA) is to determine the preferred solution and conceptual designs to accommodate future wastewater servicing demands in McGregor.
Todd Hewitt, Amherstburg’s manager of engineering, said the lagoons are reaching capacity in McGregor and the two towns are looking at solutions to how to overcome that issue.
“What Stantec does is look at options,” said Hewitt.
There were seven alternative solutions studied by Stantec including doing nothing, restricting community growth, reducing sewage flows, modify operations, discharging to a wastewater treatment plant outside of McGregor, a new wastewater plant at an alternate site and expanding or upgrading the McGregor sewage works.
Hewitt indicated that no decision has been made as of yet, with discussion and input on how to best address growth coming in the McGregor area. Amherstburg is unable to commit to new development currently due to being at capacity.
Options that passed the consultants’ criteria were the ones to restrict community growth, a new wastewater treatment plant at an alternative site and expanding/upgrading the McGregor sewage works. Not passing the evaluation were options to do nothing, to reduce sewage flows, modifying operations at the MSTF and to discharge to a wastewater plant outside of McGregor.
One of the next steps would be to select and design the preferred solution based on public feedback. Once the preferred option is selected, Hewitt said the two towns would look to have a second public open house.
How the project would be funded between the two towns is something that has to be decided, he noted, but the preferred solution has to be decided upon first.
“Those are discussions for down the road,” he said.
While not officially part of the project, there was also information on the Howard Industrial Zone. Hewitt said there could be opportunities in the future to provide capacity for sewage and possibly tie it into the lagoons but there is also a chance the Howard Industrial Zone could provide sewage options through other, separate means.
As the two projects are running parallel to each other, Hewitt indicated they wanted to provide information on that.
Open house held on McGregor sewage system
By Ron Giofu
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