County of Stettler council approved moving ahead with a strategy to reactivate the Red Willow Lagoon at its Oct. 14 regular council meeting, while directing administration to bring back fee options to recover expenses.

The approved motion includes public engagement, tendering and construction of a discharge pipeline and reopening the lagoon to hauled wastewater. It also calls for discussions with other interested municipalities as the county considers how to pay for the service.

The lagoon has been out of operation since November 2021, when an attempted discharge through its existing gravity outlet caused downstream flooding. It has since stopped accepting hauled sanitary wastewater from surrounding communities.

The county retained Stantec Consulting to design a piped outlet to Red Willow Creek. According to the council report, the outlet has received the necessary amendments to its provincial environmental approval to support a controlled annual discharge.

Council’s discussion focused on ensuring the facility could cover its costs without an ongoing tax subsidy. Administration emphasized that revenue would need to pay for operations and account for depreciation, allowing the county to recover the cost of infrastructure over its useful life.

Concerns were raised about the county paying the upfront capital costs and whether the proposed fees would adequately recover those expenses from users.

The discharge pipeline has an estimated construction cost of approximately $1.1 million. A $624,473 grant would reduce the county’s share to $472,633.

A proposed wastewater receiving system, which would measure incoming volumes and support metered billing, has an estimated capital cost of $150,000. Combined annual operating and maintenance costs for the lagoon, pipeline and receiving system are projected at $55,000.

Administration’s preliminary financial model calculated a cost of $2.96 per cubic metre, including operating expenses and depreciation, based on an annual wastewater volume of 34,350 cubic metres.

The report proposed a more cautious rate of $5 per cubic metre to provide cost recovery if volumes were lower than expected. Administration suggested reviewing the rate after a year of measured use.

Council’s motion did not set a final rate. Instead, administration is to return with options for fees to recoup expenses, including discussions with other interested municipalities.

Construction timing was also discussed. The possibility of delaying work to avoid winter conditions was raised as a potential way to obtain lower prices, provided a delay would not put grant funding at risk.

Stantec’s analysis identified capacity limits that will require monitoring as the lagoon returns to service. Its estimated annual hauled wastewater volume of approximately 68,700 cubic metres exceeds the storage cell’s estimated annual discharge volume of about 48,000 cubic metres.

Administration considers the study’s assumptions conservative and expects actual volumes to be considerably lower. A receiving system would provide measured information to guide operations and allow staff to redirect loads to Erskine if Red Willow approached capacity.

The reactivation strategy also includes water quality monitoring, discharge planning and operating limits to manage the lagoon’s return to service.