Barrie fights environment ministry over $100M

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance Oct 04, 2012 

BARRIE – Barrie is appealing an Ontario order to flush another $100 million into the sewage treatment plant.

Despite $85 million in upgrades finished last year, Barrie’s wastewater treatment facility isn’t meeting phosphorous targets Ontario set in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan before the upgrades finished. 

Ontario had approved Barrie’s upgrade plan in 2007. From 2008 to 2011, Barrie designed and constructed its work to meet a phosphorous compliance limit – that is the most phosphorous allowed – at 0.18 mg/l and a phosphorous objective of 0.12 mg/l. 

The work wrapped up a year ago. 

But in the meantime, Ontario approved the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan and in June 2010 set a phosphorous limit for Barrie of 0.10 mg/l and 2,774 kg/year.

And it has put those limits on the sewage plant’s certificate of approval. Barrie is appealing the 0.10 mg/l target, for fear of not meeting those targets, especially as flows increase.

“I would prefer that we don’t go through the appeal process. If the Ministry (of the Environment) is willing to keep talking, it would be better to find a resolution that supports the (Lake Simcoe Protection) Plan without going through the hearing,” Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman told The Advance.

“But this cost is far, far less than the $100 million we would be forced to spend if we don’t appeal.” 

Despite Barrie’s growth, the amount of phosphorous the city’s sewage plant puts into the lake has been dropping. In 2005, the load was 4117 kg/year, and by 2010, the load was 1422 kg/year, under Ontario’s limit for Barrie of 2,774 kg/year.

The Environmental and Lands Tribunal is to hold a preliminary hearing Oct. 29, although talks between the city and Ontario continue.

Barrie had little choice in appealing the order, explained Barrie’s acting engineering director Bob Kahle. 

If Barrie didn’t appeal, Barrie would risk its sewage plant being non-compliant with the province’s rules and would risk facing fines of up to $100,000 per day under the Water Resources Act, he said, if the a new membrane filtration system wasn’t installed. 

“The design and construction of this system is a multi-year project and the expected costs would be approaching $100 million,” explained Kahle. As well, the upgrade would add another $900,000 per year in operational costs. 

In July, the environment ministry told Barrie the sewage plant had to comply with the 0.1 mg/litre phosphorous limit on June 2, 2015. 

Its wastewater rates are already among the highest in Ontario for similar-sized municipalities, the city said, due to its having to meet Lake Simcoe Protection Plan targets. 

Lehman said the upgrade’s cost would go straight onto wastewater bills.

“That’s why we’re fighting this. Our residents have already had to pay major increases in their bills for the last round of upgrades,” said Lehman. 

“The ministry needs to recognize that our residents simply can’t afford another increase in their utility bills due to the unfunded impacts of provincial regulations. There is just no need for this when there are other, more effective, and more cost-effective ways of reducing phosphorous in Lake Simcoe.”

A city staff report argues phosphorous levels have already been reduced by upgrading the sewage plant and through $19 million in storm water pond retrofits, naturalization of both Kidd’s and Hotchkiss creeks and implementing soil and sediment control plans.