Live question

Who says water plants need to be replaced?

The audit committee chair was reeling after learning that a key bit of the foundation supporting the Wellington waterworks expansion plan had collapsed under scrutiny. So John Hirsch may be forgiven for presuming he knows the answer to one of the primary questions still outstanding.

“There is no question our infrastructure needs replacing,” asserted Hirsch. “ The Picton plant is near the end of life and Wellington is not far behind.”

How does Hirsch know what he thinks he knows? What is the evidentiary basis for his unequivocal assertion? Hirsch says there is “no question” about these issues. Indeed, it is one of the questions a thirdparty review should be looking at: What is the condition of Wellington’s water plant and sewage treatment plant? Is it really at the end of life? What are the alternatives to massive renewal of these assets? This community needs these answers.

The sole source of this belief seems based on the “condition assessment” conducted by RV Anderson, the engineering consultancy that designed the $100 million plant expansion in May 2021. The Water and Wastewater System Issues, Alternatives and Evaluation memorandum found issues, constraints and challenges with the plants in Wellington. It found water pressure on the low end of the acceptable range. It found issues around heavy rain events overwhelming the wastewater plant. Both have been fixed by the addition of a new water tower and an overflow tank. But what about the plants?

The RV Anderson report concluded that that expanding the water and wastewater plant were viable alternatives to the other options considered. Not their first choice, but a viable alternative. RV Anderson found it was not necessary to accommodate existing users or growth by tearing up and building new.

It turns out neither John Hirsch, nor Council, or Shire Hall “know our infrastructure needs replacing”.

As to the Picton plant, no work has been produced to demonstrate his assertion. Indeed CAO Marcia Wallace threw cold water on the urgent need to replace the Picton water plant last year when encouraging accelerated housing development plans at Base31.

“Speaking to the head of engineering and head of water, we do not have a capacity issue in Picton,” said CAO Wallace in September. “There is not an issue of running out of water.”

Now, capacity isn’t the same as condition, but they are related.

Nevertheless Shire Hall is pushing ahead with a massive plan to build a super regional plant in Wellington, from a new pipe into Lake Ontario and then build a pipeline to Picton to replace the Picton water plant. The ink on the environmental assessment is still not dry. There is no financing in place. And no plan.

It ought to be of interest to the audit committee chair.