Cumberland gets $7 million infrastructure funding for wastewater treatment

Work will begin soon on Cumberland’s new wastewater treatment system after the Village received a $7 million grant from federal and provincial governments.

The Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program announced this week that Cumberland had been awarded $7,113,010 from the program’s environmental quality stream. That’s about 75 percent of the village’s $9.7 million plan.

Cumberland has been out of compliance with the province’s wastewater treatment standards for many years, and was recently fined $85,000 by the Ministry of the Environment. The village is appealing that fine because over the last three years it has developed a plan to return to compliance and has actively sought funding to implement it.

“The village has worked very hard to find a Made in Cumberland treatment solution that is affordable for our taxpayers, “ Mayor Leslie Baird said.

Cumberland opted out of the South Sewer Project in 2016 for financial reasons. That plan was ultimately rejected by Royston and Union Bay voters because it was too expensive.

Cumberland then proposed a traditional treatment plan, but couldn’t find funding for its $21 million price tag.

The village hired Paul Nash, of Sechelt, to help develop a lower cost alternative that would meet provincial standards.

The now-funded plan will upgrade Cumberland’s existing lagoon-based wastewater treatment system, handle large combine storm-sewer flows and provide capacity for population growth. It uses an innovative features to filter out contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals.

“The final treated water will restore the natural summer “wet” conditions to a drained wetland and facilitate habitat restoration of the area, while providing natural polishing of the water to remove organic contaminants, before distribution to the natural wetlands north of the lagoon, then continuing to the Maple Creek Watershed,” according to a village press release.

Mayor Baird told Decafnation this week that the village has filed a complaint with the BC Ombudsman Office over the out-of-compliance fines. She said one arm of the provincial government was working with the village on their plan and funding it, while another arm was threatening to fine them.

“There were two arms working in silos,” she said. “They had no idea what the other was doing.”

Baird said the appeal is important because many small communities in BC are out of compliance and the fines and the time, travel and cost to appeal them can be a “huge burden” on small towns. Cumberland hopes to set a precedent through its appeal and complaint with the Ombudsman.

With the new funds and the village’s $1.2 million in reserves for the project’s capital costs, there will be little need for additional borrowing. During last October’s municipal elections, Cumberland voters approved borrowing for the project.

That may be good news for villagers who support construction of a new fire hall.

Cumberland doesn’t have the capacity to borrow both the whole wastewater project and a roughly $4 million fire hall.