Total cost of upgrades to Winnipeg's largest sewage-treatment plant now pegged at $2.2 billion

The total cost of upgrades to the largest of Winnipeg's sewage treatment plants has risen to $2.2 billion and will likely increase further, according to city financial status reports and previous budget documents.

This is leading to renewed concerns about the cash required to continue improvements to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre, which processessewage from the Kildonans, Transcona, Elmwood, the North End, the West End, downtown neighbourhoodsand parts of River Heights, St. James and St. Boniface.

The upgrades were originally envisioned by the provincial Clean Environment Commission in 2003 and were initially expected to be completed early in the 2010s.

They'renow on pace to wrap up some time in the 2030s, assuming Winnipeg can secure all the funding it needs for a project which ranks as the most expensive in the city's history.

There are three components of the project. The first phase involves the construction of anew power plant and upgrades to the headworks, where untreated sewage and stormwater enters the plant.

All three levels of government agreed in 2021 to share the $474 million cost of this phase of the work, which is already underway and is expected to wrap up by 2027, according to a financial status report published on Tuesday.

The second phase of the upgrades involves the construction of a facility to process biosolids,the nutrient-rich, sludge-like byproduct of initial wastewater treatmentat all three Winnipeg sewage plants.

All three levels of government agreed to spend a combined $553million on this component in 2022. The latest financial status report suggests the total cost will be $912 million by the time work wraps up in 2031.

The gap between the funding and the total price tag is identified as a risk in this report.

The final component of the upgrades is a facility that will remove phosphorus and nitrogen, two nutrients that promote the growth of algae in Lake Winnipeg, from treated wastewater before effluent from the plant is discharged into the Red River.

The most recent estimate for this phase is $828 million "in 2023 dollars," according to a 2020 budget report.

Coun. Brian Mayes(St. Vital), who chairs city council's water,waste and environment committee, said Tuesday this figure is likely to rise once the city develops a more detailed design for this component.

So far, there is no funding available for most of the work and no timeline for completing it.

"Certainly, we hope for federal and provincial help with the third phase," Mayes said on Tuesday.

Without it, the city will be forced to rely more on borrowing to pay for the project and continue to lean on commercial and residential sewer charges to service that debt.

According to the 2023 city budget, the average residential sewer bill rose from $697 in 2020 to $751 this year. City council finance chair Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said he expects to see a forecast soon that will outline how sewer rates are expected to rise in the coming years.

The existing $2.2-billion price tag for the North End sewage treatment upgrades does not include debt and finance charges.

Mayes said a debate is likely coming on how much sewage-related debt the city can take on. City hall is under pressure topick up the pace ofreplacingcombined sewerswith dedicated pipes for land drainage and sewage as a result of public disgust with periodic discharges of stormwater-diluted sewage into Winnipeg's rivers.

Mayes said this work may be doable for close to $1 billion, rather than the $2.3-billion figure floated by city staff in 2022. Moreborrowing would be required for this project, even with help from two other levels of government.

Despite the immense cost of replacing combined sewers and upgrading treatment plants, all this workin Winnipeg is only expected to make a small dent in the total quantity of nutrients heading into Lake Winnipeg.

The Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board estimated Winnipeg wastewater is responsible for five per cent of the phosphorus that flows into the lake and four per cent of the nitrogen.