Key takeaways:
- Money means St. John’s will eventually stop leaving raw sewage into the ocean.
- Even wastewater can make politicians smile.
- On Thursday morning, political leaders from all three tiers of government assembled at St. John’s City Hall to declare $27 million for sewage and wastewater upgrades for St. John’s and Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove.
An injection of tens of millions of dollars from all three tiers of government will eventually let the final area of St. John’s stop pumping raw sewage into the ocean.
On Thursday morning, politicians assembled at St. John’s City Hall to declare they’ll be paying $27 million on primary wastewater treatment projects and other infrastructure in the Goulds site of St. John’s and Petty Harbour Maddox Cove.
However, a labor conflict in neighboring Mount Pearl provoked some last-minute changes to the report.
Initially, the event was planned to take place in Mount Pearl and be hosted by Mayor Dave Aker. But that all altered after several 200 municipal workers struck the picket lines and gathered strength outside city hall Thursday.
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So the event was migrated to St. John’s, the funds to be declared for Mount Pearl projects were drawn from the official press release, and Aker did not attend the St. John’s event. A political associate told CBC News politicians will make another report in Mount Pearl later when the labor climate is less heated.
Meanwhile, approximately $200,000 of the $27 million will be spent to build a new sewage line from the Goulds pumping station to the Kilbride trunk sewer attachment.
This will let sewage flow by gravity to the Riverhead station, where it will experience primary treatment before being released into St. John’s Harbour.
Work on the project started two years back and is anticipated to be completed in November, said St. John’s, Mayor Danny Breen.
Source – CBC News
