Fort Liard earmarks cash for lagoon after feds OK $469,000
Department of Environment and Natural Resources advising residents to take care when burning brush after fire smoulders Fort Simpson subdivision
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, November 24, 2016
ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD
Fort Liard will be extending the capacity of its sewage lagoon for the next 20 years, thanks to federal funding supplied through the Government of Canada's Small Communities Fund.
The hamlet is receiving $469,000 in funding. Coupled with nearly $1.1 million from the community itself, the funds are earmarked for a project that will see parts of the lagoon, known as cells, de-sludged, as well as adding an extra cell onto the lagoon to bring the total cell count to four.
Fort Liard Mayor Steven Steeves said the project was deemed a necessity in order for the hamlet to retain its water licence. The community sought funding from the federal government once the hamlet's council decided to make it a priority.
The project is currently in the hands of an engineer. Steeves said although planning for the project began this year, the hamlet hopes the majority of the work will be completed in the springtime.
"We've already started (on the project). When we got approved (for the funding), we had to show our due diligence, so we had our engineers make a budget and plan," he said.
That information was sent to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for review.
For the past few years, Fort Liard has been battling capacity issues at its lagoon, according to documents filed with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board.
Since May 31, 2010, the hamlet has filed numerous requests for emergency decanting of some of the lagoon's cells.
Decanting is a standard process for lagoons. After cells have had time to settle, the water - also known as effluent - on the surface of the lagoon ponds is released into ditches, once it has been tested to meet standards set out in the hamlet's water licence.
In December 2015, the hamlet commissioned a capacity study for the sewage lagoon, which determined whether another cell was needed to meet the sewage management needs of the community for the next 20 years.
That study determined that although current capacity should be sufficient, one of the cells needed de-sludging.
Based on figures from 2011 to 2014, the average person in Fort Liard generates 64.4 litres of sewage each day, resulting in about 14,550 cubic metres of sewage accumulating in the lagoon every year.
