Municipality of Pontiac public meeting
Wastewater system, village of Quyon
Over 150 people came to a lengthy public meeting on Quyon’s wastewater treatment, held at Luskville community centre on Thursday night, March 6, 2003.
Pontiac council had received a letter from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MMA) dated January 15, 2003, stating that the maximum grant available would be 85% of the lowest cost system, even if a higher cost system was selected.
Following this, council passed a resolution at a special meeting on February 18, to hold this public meeting and recommend that:
1. The least expensive system be selected, that is aerated lagoons.
2. The costs of installing the system be paid 75% by the users and 25% by all taxpayers.
3. The $150,000 reserved for this project and $80,000 from the sewer fund (from users of sewers in Quyon) be used to help pay construction costs.
After Mayor Bruce Campbell had explained this, Marc Derouin and Martin Lachapelle, engineers with Fondex, gave a presentation in both French and English, interrupted frequently by comments and questions from the audience.
History of the project
The waste water treatment project started in 1990. By 1992 there were engineers’ reports for a lagoon system and a PADEM grant was available for 85% of the cost of $2.9 million. Construction had to be completed by 1994 or part of the grant would be lost, however Quyon residents turned down the lagoon project on two occasions because of concerns about costs, effectiveness and smells.
Former councillor Gary Trivett interjected that the original system was too expensive for Quyon residents alone. An inspector was hired who identified 660 lots in the municipality with holding tanks that should be pumped monthly, and the proposal was made that this sewage would be treated by the lagoon system, and the costs spread over more people.
In about 1996 a committee in Quyon started investigating Solar Aquatics. By 2000 the municipality was under tutorship, in part because it had failed to resolve this issue.
By 2002, after talks with engineers and Solar Aquatics, MMA said they would accept Solar Aquatics, under certain conditions:
1) because it is a new technology to Quebec, with the patent held by a US company, higher guarantees would be required.
2) because solar aquatics could not cope with rainwater flow from storm sewers in addition to sanitary sewer flow, the drainage system in Quyon would have to be rebuilt to separate the two systems, adding to construction costs. Individual owners would in addition be responsible for costs of separating their rainwater run-off from their sanitary sewer outlets.
How the systems work
Aerated lagoons are open pits, lined with an impermeable membrane, that collect waste water, which is treated by aeration (air bubbled into the waste) and biological activity (bacteria that break down the sewage) until levels of contamination are low enough for the water to be discharged into the Ottawa River. Quyon would need two lagoons, which would be sited downwind (east) of Quyon, and at least 300m from any residence. If operated properly there would be no smell. Three possible sites were shown on a map, all close to Clarendon Road, east of Murray Street and west of the hydro line that crosses the Ottawa river. Only minor reconstruction of the existing drainage network in Quyon would be necessary, as lagoons can cope with rainwater entering the sanitary sewer. Construction of an aerated lagoon system would cost $3,376,522, with annual running costs of $56,342.
Solar Aquatics uses a greenhouse with tanks, where aeration, biological activity and growing plants purify the water. The greenhouse is needed to keep the system warm in winter. Although seen by some as a tourist attraction, existing systems have had to restrict access because of health concerns. Because it is a patented system it is more expensive. Operating costs are higher than for lagoons. An existing system in Beaverbank, Nova Scotia serves about 100 homes, about one third the size of the required system for Quyon. A Solar Aquatics greenhouse is smaller than lagoons and could be located in the village. MMA requires higher guarantees because it is new technology, not yet built on this scale in Canada. Construction of a Solar Aquatics system would cost $4,017,680, with annual running costs of $80,000.
Financing
Finally the engineers presented three scenarios for financing construction and operating costs. As council now recommends selecting the least expensive system, that is aerated lagoons, the figures that follow are for the lagoon system. In the first two scenarios it is assumed that a provincial grant of 85% is received, equal to $2,870,044, and that the $150,000 “surplus” reserved for this project and the $80,000 from the sewer fund (from existing users of sewers in Quyon) are used to help pay for construction. The remaining money ($276,479) would be borrowed and paid back over 20 years.
In the first scenario, recommended by council, the $276,479 cost of installing the system would be paid 75% by the users and 25% by all taxpayers. This first scenario would cost Pontiac taxpayers $2.70 per year for 20 years, for a property evaluated at $100,000. Users of the system would pay an average of $55 per year for 20 years for constructing the system (based on the average Quyon house value of $74,000), and a user fee of $173 per year for operating costs, for an average total of $228 per year.
The second scenario is “user pay”, where 100% is paid by users of the system, who would pay an average of $74 per year for 20 years for constructing the system (based on the average Quyon house value of $74,000), and a user fee of $173 per year for operating costs, for an average total of $247 per year.
The third scenario is the “alarmist” one. It assumes that no agreement has been reached, time has run out so that no grant is available, and that the province has installed a lagoon system that the municipality as a whole has to pay for. In this case, all taxpayers would pay $125 per year per $100,000 of property evaluation, for 20 years. In addition, users in Quyon would pay a sewer fee of $173 for operating costs.
Throughout the presentation there were many questions and comments from members of the public and former councillors. After the presentation the public’s comments and questions continued, and some were answered.
If users pay 75% of the cost, only users would be able to vote against the borrowing bylaw. If more than 25% of the cost is paid by all taxpayers, all taxpayers have the right to vote against the borrowing bylaw. There was a long discussion about whether a 74/26 per cent split would be better than 75/25, to allow all taxpayers to vote on the borrowing bylaw. Lawrence Tracey suggested that as Quyon is only 11% of the municipality's evaluation, users should pay a higher share of the costs, more like 90%.
A vocal faction was concerned that the $150,000 “surplus” reserved for this project had come from the whole municipality so that all taxpayers would in fact be paying 40% of costs, not 25%. It was explained that this was part of an agreement in which at the same time $300,000 was set aside for the school gymnasium in Luskville, and $150,000 for Quyon’s drinking water system.
Others were completely opposed to contributing at all to Quyon’s treatment system. One man had just paid $5000 to install a septic system with no help from the municipality and (jokingly?) offered to dump sludge on the mayor’s doorstep.
Former councillor Louis-Henri Vaillant angrily questioned where the money would come from in future, to fix the untreated sewage problems in the Beaches area, where overflowing or damaged holding tanks threaten drinking water wells and pollute the shoreline.
Guy Bilodeau was concerned that residents with holding tanks and septic tanks would be hit with increasing costs from the MRC and municipality in the future. The original proposal to use the lagoons to treat this material has been dropped, because the MRC des Collines has its own project to truck and treat sewage from holding tanks and sludge from septic tanks. Bruce Campbell assured him that as soon as he knows the MRC’s plans he would let him know.
Bruce Campbell and councillor Roger Larose suggested that in a municipality it is common to share some costs even if one doesn’t use all services, and that in this case we would all be helping to clean up the Ottawa River and our beaches. The economy in Quyon might improve with better services, which would help all taxpayers.
Don McColgan, one of the original proposers of Solar Aquatics, admitted, “I’d love to have Solar Aquatics but we can’t afford it.” He agreed that we should pay taxes for some things that we personally don’t use.
Councillor Bill Twolan feels that the project should go ahead, with the whole community paying $2.70 each. “We should all pull together. It is better if everyone helps everyone else with projects.”
The engineers were asked when the cost estimates were made and what the real cost was likely to be given that cost overruns are common. They said that some money for contingencies is built into the estimate, but since the estimate was done in early 2002, an increase of about 10% is possible.
Another public presentation on Quyon’s wastewater system will be given on March 20, 2003 at 7:30 pm at the Lions Club hall in Quyon.

Link to other reports on municipality of Pontiac