Plans to rebuild Tottenham sewage plant fully underway

Posted April 25, 2012

XCG Consultants Limited and R.J. Burnside & Associates Ltd. have been retained by the Town to complete the conceptual design, site layout design, and provide programme management services for replacing the Tottenham Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).

Initially the Ministry of Environment had been pushing the Town to decommission the plant in Tottenham, and connect the former village to the regional sewage treatment plant in Alliston. A combination of high potential costs, but more importantly greater attention to increasing the plant's efficiencies to bring it back into compliance, triggered an update to the master servicing study that identified a preferred alternative which is its replacement a limit of technology (LoT) capable facility.

The Addendum identified that the approved preferred solution is a new, permanent facility capable of producing very low TP and TAN effluent concentrations and includes the following process elements:

New preliminary treatment works including fine screening and grit removal.
Biosolids stabilization process rather than stabilization and storage in the existing sludge lagoons.
New secondary treatment (bioreactors and clarifiers) to replace the existing equipment.
New tertiary polishing building to house the phosphorus polishing process that will be selected at preliminary design.

"It is recommended that we follow the same project design and construction phasing strategy that was very successful in the remediation and expansion of the
Regional WWTP," according to the staff report to council. "There are many similarities in the two projects in that the existing facility will have to keep operating as the new facility is being constructed."

There's an urgency to moving on the wwtp rebuild, which along with upgrades to the pumping stations, and the expected connection of Tottenham to the water pipeline from Alliston, will accommodate the hard service requirements of the Tottenham Secondary Plan and its 1,795 proposed new homes.

"The (WWTP) project is funded from Development Charges. There is $280,500 in the approved 2012 Town Capital budget, which is sufficient to fund the works anticipated to be completed in 2012 for this project, with $21,660,000 identified for subsequent years. This cost estimate breakdown envisioned the conceptual design being completed and the start of the detail design in 2012; the major portion of the construction would be undertaken in 2014 and 2015. The cost estimated will be updated as part of the detail design of the project."

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