Victoria’s new pump stations nearing completion

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They’re considered the first line of defense in treating the sewage from more than 300,000 people in the CRD.

For decades much of the region’s waste has flowed to two pump stations located at Macaulay Point and Clover Point, where for more than half-a-century sewage was screened and then pumped into the ocean.

As part of the CRD’s $775-million wastewater treatment project, both facilities underwent major upgrades.

In the case of the Macaulay Point Pump Station, it was replaced with a new $30-million facility situated just a few feet away from the old pump station. Clover Point, which has been under construction since 2018, also underwent significant changes and has been upgraded and expanded.

Both stations will now pump wastewater in a large underground pipe to the McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant for tertiary treatment and provide bypass pumping to the existing outfall during storm events.

Construction of the new Macaulay Point Pump Station is nearly complete and although some electrical work still needs to be finished, new massive screens, 2.5 metres wide, are now in place. The company who installed them says they’re the largest sewage screens it has ever installed.

The new sewage system will see the screens remove anything larger than 6-millimetres from the wastewater. That waste will be compacted and then trucked up to Hartland. This process is similar to what’s been occurring for decades in the region, however, after being screened the remaining wastewater will undergo further treatment in the pump station.

Once it’s treated in a massive tank called a Vortex Degritter, it’s then pumped in an 1800 millimetre pipe to the McLoughlin wastewater treatment plant.

A similar pipe was installed underneath Dallas Road connecting the existing Clover Point Pump Station to the McLoughlin Plant.

The pipe, which rests 20 metres below the seabed, enters the ocean floor near Ogden Point.

Work at the Clover Point Pump Station is nearing completion. The conveyance infrastructure inside the facility has been upgraded and many of the existing rooms were repurposed. The entire underground facility was also seismically upgraded.

The biggest addition is the facility’s new pump room. A hallway attaches the new pump room to the old facility.

Outside the Clover Point Pump Station, several new amenities are currently under construction including a gender-neutral public washroom with an outdoor public shower. A bike path along the Dallas Road waterfront is also in the final stages of construction and work is underway to replace the Dallas Road concrete railing with a steel-and-cable design similar to the railing along the Ogden Point Breakwater.

RELATED: Capital Regional District wastewater treatment project on schedule, over budget

Construction of the two pump stations is expected to be finished this summer with testing set to begin before the fall.

Elizabeth Scott, deputy program director for the project, says the sewage system will meet its federal requirement of being operational before the end of this year.

The current cost of the project is $775 million, a 1.6 per cent increase from the original project budget of $765 million.

Tomorrow our tour continues with a tour of the Residual Treatment Facility at Hartland and a look at the biosolids that will eventually be produced.

Joe PerkinsJoe Perkins

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