The District is officially updating its sewage system master plan for the first time in almost two decades. The plan was presented to a council committee on Tuesday afternoon.
“This feels long overdue,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman.
Manager of municipal infrastructure David Roulston said the existing plan, created in 1999, was “quite out of date” before briefing council on the new document.
The development of the new master plan, which began in February 2015, involved collecting several months of data monitoring flow in the existing system.
The new plan takes into account potential population growth up until 2050, factoring in potential developments like Garibaldi Springs or the Cheema lands, and is meant to help the District prioritize for budgets and upgrades.
The total cost of the capital plan is $56.4 million over the next 32 years. Most of that cost is anticipated to hit the District after 2032.
The report recommends that the District increase sewer utility rates by one to two per cent each year to fund the implementation of the plan.
Around 86 per cent of the pipes in the Squamish system are designated to be in “good” to “very good” condition.
Around six per cent are said to be “poor” to “very poor,” many of which are located in the Garibaldi Estates area. Some deteriorating pipes were also located downtown and east Brackendale.
“Our sewer condition in general is actually very good,” said Roulston.
The report identifies a number of urgent projects to be completed before 2021.
The gravity sewers on Tantalus Road are currently a bottleneck in the system, according to the report, and should be replaced with double-capacity sewers “immediately to avoid sewer back up and surcharging.” Upgrades to highway crossings in the area are also recommended.
The report also suggests upgrades to pumps at the Central Lift Station and Buckley Lift Station.
Several operational and maintenance projects are also suggested, including new annual monitoring systems to make sure that the District has up-to-date condition data to work with going forward.
