Mayoral hopeful Loney vows to use green projects to tackle sewage-spill problem

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This article was published 29/05/2022 (844 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg must tap into “green infrastructure” projects sooner to speed up work reducing combined sewer overflows, one of the candidates hoping to become the city’s next mayor believes.

Social enterprise leader Shaun Loney said he’d make tackling that source of water pollution a key priority, if elected in the fall.

“When we looked into the green infrastructure, it presents a great opportunity to get better results quicker…. On the city’s timeline, they’re talking about doing pilot projects a few years from now. We want to get going on it now,” said Loney.

Combined overflows occur in older sewers that collect both precipitation and wastewater in a single pipe. Heavy rain or snow events cause overflow spills into the rivers, a process that dumped 5.6 billion litres of diluted sewage into local waterways in 2020, the most recent data available shows.

The diluted sewage contains algae-promoting phosphorus and nitrogen, which eventually winds up in Lake Winnipeg.

The city is pursuing a master plan that could cost as much as $2.3 billion to capture 85 per cent of those spills in an average weather year; the province has set a deadline of Dec. 31, 2045 to accomplish that goal. However, the city has said that may not be completed until 2095, unless senior governments help pay for the work.

“We’ll still be dumping raw sewage into our waterways (until at least) 2045…. We’ve got to do better than that. This is an issue that other cities are also grappling with. And other cities are moving more quickly towards green infrastructure because it’s more cost-effective and keeps more raw sewage out of the waterways,” said Loney.

Green infrastructure projects currently account for $105 million of the overall combined sewer overflow master plan. Loney said council should speed up those particular projects within the existing budget. The green projects would help lower the number of overflows by reducing the amount of runoff entering pipes. Such projects could include strategic tree planting, green roofs (using vegetation to soak up water) and permeable paving that replaces hard street surfaces with other materials that better absorb moisture.

Loney promised to seek proposals from organizations to reduce runoff, accelerate pilot projects already planned for green infrastructure on city-owned land and create incentives for private property owners to capture, store or absorb runoff if he becomes mayor.

For major landowners, those incentives would gradually be phased out and, for those who didn’t take part in the program, replaced with a new fee that charges them for their impact on the wastewater system.

The candidate did not specify the amount of the potential incentive or fee.

Loney did commend council for boosting the master plan budget to $45 million per year between 2024 and 2027, up from the current $30 million per year, while stressing he agrees replacing outdated combined sewers must be part of the work.

Coun. Brian Mayes, who leads council’s water and waste committee, said it’s accurate that little green infrastructure has been even tested to reduce overflows so far. He said green pilot projects are currently slated to begin sometime between 2024 and 2027 in the Armstrong combined sewer district.

Mayes said he’s pleased to see the matter become an election issue and agrees the city should ensure it reduces the overflows as soon as possible. However, he said green infrastructure initiatives are still quite new to the city, so that work must proceed carefully.

“They are going to be pilot projects or experiments for a while because our staff is saying we don’t know exactly what’s going to work with our soil type. The ability to ramp it up really fast, I’m not sure we have that,” he said.

Coun. Scott Gillingham, who is also running for mayor, said he is committed to tackling pollution and open to considering more green infrastructure solutions.

“We’re certainly not only looking to separate our combined sewers… but also looking at other options…. We really have to make sure that we are seeing a return on investment that is best for our environment and for taxpayers,” said Gillingham.

The St. James councillor’s comments came just after he received an endorsement for his own mayoral campaign. Coun. Jeff Browaty formally backed Gillingham Monday.

“I believe Scott brings to the table genuine honesty, integrity (and the) fiscal steady hand Winnipeg needs going forward,” said Browaty.

Coun. Markus Chambers and former Long Plains First Nation Chief Dennis Meeches previously endorsed Gillingham’s mayoral bid.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga