Lacombe County has voted to spend up to $600,000 to ensure a future regional sewer line will be big enough to handle waste from new rural developments.
The money unanimously approved by county council on Thursday would go towards a proposed lift station at the Summer Village of Birchcliff. The lift station’s pumps would be necessary if developments in Lacombe County north of Birchcliff go ahead.
Under the county’s new Sylvan Lake Area Structure Plan, new developments must tie into a regional sewage line. The measure is meant to protect the lake by limiting the number of new septic fields.
At least two developers are interested in building homes north of Birchcliff so the county approached the Sylvan Lake Regional Waste Water Commission to apply to the province for funding to build a lift station.
Under the province’s Water for Life Strategy, money is provided for various projects related to urban areas. However, the county is responsible for paying to hook up rural areas.
A consultant estimated the cost of the basic lift station at $1.26 million. Over-sizing it to serve nearby rural areas would cost an additional $543,270.
If provincial funding is approved and the project goes ahead, the county hopes to recoup its investment through the levies charged to developers to pay for services.
This would not be the first time the county has paid to upgrade sewer lines for rural residents. The county paid $434,000 to upgrade a 13-km wastewater line from Sylvan Lake to a septic station just north of the town. The province contributed $3.2 million for the line.
County commissioner Terry Hager said talks have already begun with Alberta Transportation to see what funding is available.
Besides the lift station, Birchcliff would need provincial and federal cash to pay for hook-ups from each home to a regional sewer line.
If the province doesn’t agree to fund the lift station, the county could pay for it as an interim measure with hopes of recouping the money later when funding becomes available.
Hager said the county will likely find itself under “substantial pressure” from developers to provide some means of hooking up to a regional sewer line, since it is a county requirement.
The county will face the same issue in the future as the regional sewer line works its way around the lake, he predicted.
It is not fair that county ratepayers should be faced with paying for the cost of hooking up rural developments to the regional line. Some sort of levy will be required to ensure costs are passed on to developers, he said.
“The developers should be paying for those development costs.”
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com