Water taxes could jump by $100, warns St. John's mayor who wants time to fix infrastructure

St. John's Mayor Danny Breen says the city is facing a wastewater problem that will costtens of millions of dollars to fix and he wants more time from the federal governmentto do it.

Changes to federal government regulations in 2014 required cities to test the levels of suspended solids and chemical biological oxygen demand essentially, the amount of oxygen needed for organic material to be broken down in water.

The levels found in St. John's mean the city has to build a secondary treatment facility by the end of 2020, which Breen said will cost the city about $85 million to build.

"It's a huge project for the city," he said after council's weekly meeting Monday. "It eats up a lot of the capital spending that we have available to us."

Once it's up and running, the facilitywill cost about $12 million a year to operate.

That would meanresidentialwater taxes will rise by $105 by 2026 to offset that cost alone, said the mayor, who addedit's not just a St. John's problem but one that will affect neighbouring Mount Pearl and Paradise.

"It would add 20 per centto the business water rates because businesses are on a meter," Breen said.

"Given these economictimes, and the situation we are in, we don't think there is a need to do this right now."

Breen said he's been working with St. John's members of ParliamentSeamus O'Regan and Nick Whalenbut decided to write a letter to the federal ministers responsible forenvironment, infrastructure and intergovernmental affairs.

Here is part of Breen's letter.

His argument is the wastewater testing results the federal government is using are from 2013 to 2014, when the Riverhead Wastewater Treatment Plan was "relatively new."

Testing in St. John's was done at the Riverhead Wastewater Treatment Facility, said Breen, which "wasn't running at optimal level," having been operational since September2009.

It also had problemswith the digester tanks and didn't have full flow from the city at that time.

"Now that we have more some more experience and we've been running longer our levels are getting back down," said Breen.

The mayor said if the wastewater tests had been done overthe last year, the resultswould put them in the "medium-risk range," which would mean thecity would have until 2030 to construct the secondary treatment facility.

"It's something that is definitely doable," he said.

"We certainly have the support of the provincial government and we are talking to federal members as well."

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