Great Lakes Article:

Sewage Treatment Plant Delay
Thunder Bay News Source
Published December 30th, 2004

There's been a delay in the commissioning of Thunder Bay's new secondary sewage treatment plant. The 60-million dollar plant was supposed to start up in January, but that date has now been pushed back by three months. The city's chief engineer says there were problems with the construction forms, which had to be rebuilt.

The contract for the secondary sewage treatment plant was awarded in the summer of 2002 to North America Construction. The building was erected over the past two years next to the existing plant on Atlantic Avenue in the city's East End and City Engineer Doug Scott says it's now close to completion.

Last year, the estimated date of start-up was January, 2005. But Scott says there have been quite a few changes made during construction, some planned, and some because of problems. He says there was some difficulty with the forming that required rework by the contractor and the city decided to do more components than originally planned.

That additional work boosted the final price tag from 51 to 60 million dollars. Another 30 to 35 million dollars worth of construction will go ahead over the next few years, for construction of a co-generation plant and ultraviolet processes at the facility.

Fortunately, the city received a 25 million dollar grant from Ottawa to cover some of the costs. Scott says when it's done, Lake Superior will have top-notch protection from sewage additional.