The District of Sechelt is trying to get a new sewer extension project shovel-ready before the end of April, in order to submit a B.C. Small Communities Fund grant request to help pay for the estimated $5-million expenditure.
If approved, the grant would leave the district with one-third of the total cost to fund through sewer reserves. If not approved for the grant, Sechelt will put the plan on the shelf until another grant opportunity comes along, as the municipality doesn’t have the funds to go it alone.
To come up with a detailed plan, Sechelt has hired ISL Engineering and Land Services to map out two new sewer extensions for West Sechelt and West Porpoise Bay that would hook up about 150 additional homes to Sechelt’s wastewater treatment plant.
Some homes on Wakefield Road, Anchor Place, Pickleball Court and Gowland Road would be included in the sewer extension project in West Sechelt, while some homes on Fairway Avenue, Beacon Street, Parkview Place, Lookout Avenue, Harbour Way and Gale Avenue South would be included in West Porpoise Bay.
Sechelt ran two open houses on March 22 and 23 to respond to questions from homeowners who would be affected.
At the meetings, residents were told the district would bring the main sewer line up to their property perimeters, but homeowners would be on the hook for the $2,000 to $5,000 cost of connecting their homes to the main sewer line.
Homeowners in the affected areas will have up to one year to decommission their septic systems and hook up to the main line. After that one year “grace period,” the district would connect homes themselves and send the bill to property owners, according to Sanath Bandara, the district’s manager of engineering services.
When asked why other homeowners with sewer available in Sechelt have not been forced to hook up to the main line yet, Bandara said the district saw it as an issue that needed to be addressed.
“We realize that 152 properties are now not connected even though there’s sewage frontage in front of their properties. You’ll see that in a report to council soon,” he said.
If approved for the Small Communities grant later this year, it’s expected the work on the sewer extension project in West Sechelt and West Porpoise Bay would happen in 2017, once major rains have stopped and drier weather prevails.
Richard Avedon-Savage from ISL Engineering said the project would likely take between four and five months to complete.
