Edson town council recently approved an additional $200,000 for lagoon desludging within its 2025 Operating Budget.
The project was originally budgeted at $600,000 based on the estimated volume of the Cell One lagoon at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, the area needing work. At the end of August, Lambourne Environmental informed the town they had reached the estimated volume and more funding would be needed to finish the full scope of the project.
About 25 per cent of the desludging still needs to occur. Clayton Kittlitz, general manager of infrastructure operations, explained, delaying the project to the 2026 budget would require demobilization and remobilization costs of about $40,000 or more. The town would also likely need to undergo a new tender process and may face higher costs than this year as a result.
The town’s new Wastewater Treatment Plant began operations in 2019 and triggered a five-year recommendation for desludging along with it. Considering when the new plant came online, Kittlitz said the town isn’t too far off from that window. He noted, however, there was no previous maintenance schedule staff were aware of, meaning Cell One likely hasn’t been cleared in around 20 years.
As a result, sediments have built to the point where the treatment plant is no longer running efficiently. Kittlitz said the plant is essentially treating things twice due to the amount of sediment coming into the system, and operators have been hand pumping the top layer of water to try and address this challenge.
Going forward, he added, the town will try to maintain the new five-year recommendation, which should be more cost effective in the long-run.
The town says the increase will be achieved by increasing the $155,000 revenue budget for the Sale of Goods and Services and reducing the 2025 Budgeted Contribution to Capital Reserve by $45,000.
The increase was approved during a regular city council meeting at the beginning of September.
