Open house shows recommended option for McGregor EA

A diagram that was part of the McGregor EA open house last Wednesday night is seen here. The project is being worked on by the Town of Amherstburg, the Town of Essex and Stantec. All the diagrams can be found on the Town of Amherstburg’s “Talk the Burg” website.

The next stage for the McGregor sewage system expansion was an open house held last week.

The open house was held last Wednesday evening at the McGregor Community Centre about the process, with it being a project that is being shared between the Town of Amherstburg and the Town of Essex. The environmental assessment (EA) is ongoing to identify and analyze feasible solutions to upgrade the McGregor sewage system.

The project is being done in partnership with Stantec Consulting.

Todd Hewitt, manager of engineering and operations with the Town of Amherstburg, was pleased with how the open house went.

“It went well,” said Hewitt. “That was our second public information centre for the McGregor EA project.”

Of the seven options that were originally put forward, the recommended option is a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) plant. Hewitt said there were a number of criteria looked at for all seven options, and the SBR plant scored the best. Criteria included financial, social, environmental, and technical considerations.

Pros that were listed for an SBR are lower odour potential, increased capacity that supports development, the fact it’s currently utilized at the Essex pollution control plant, and good effluent quality. Cons are moderate operation and maintenance costs.

“It’s an actual treatment plant similar to the one in Essex on North Malden Road, just off of Highway 3,” said Hewitt. “When you put all of the criteria together, it’s the one that scored the highest.”

Other options included aerated lagoons, an activated sludge process, a membrane biological reactor (MBR), a moving bed biological reactor (MBBR), a submerged attached growth reactor (SAGR) and a combination of aerated lagoons and SAGR.

Hewitt said they will continue to take in and review public comments and work on the Environmental Study Report (ESR) that will eventually go before Amherstburg and Essex town councils.

The next step after that would be both councils agreeing on a funding model. Hewitt said final costs have yet to be finalized but when they are, they will go into the ESR that will go before both town councils.

It will also take a while before it gets into the design and building stages, Hewitt said.

“There are so many steps in the process to get us from where we are to there,” he stated.

This year’s municipal election could have an impact too, he noted, depending on timing of when things go to council and whether the councils are in a lame duck period.

Saying there were “mixed reactions” to the proposal at the open house, Hewitt noted the SBR plant is proposed to be on the existing lagoon lands. He said people were concerned about the location, odours that could arise and costs. Existing ponds would be decommissioned.

The nearby Howard Industrial Lands are being factored into the McGregor sewage EA, Hewitt added. He said the Howard Industrial Lands feasibility study merges with the McGregor EA as it was determined likely that the Howard lands would flow into the McGregor sewage system. 

Comments are being received until March 2. More information can be found at www.talktheburg.ca/mcgregorea. 

Open house shows recommended option for McGregor EA

By Ron Giofu