Fort Kent and Ardmore lagoon repairs approved

The Fort Kent and Ardmore sewage lagoons will see repairs shortly.

Repairs are on the way on the liners within the lagoons which have ballooned since their construction of the storage ponds in 2009.

The M.D. of Bonnyville approved the contract to Double D Contracting and Construction for $700,000 with $554,000 of money coming the municipality’s unrestricted surplus.

“There is an issue and it’s been an issue with these lagoons shortly after they were built where there was some whaling going on,” said Reeve Greg Sawchuk on The Morning After.

“It got quite severe in the Ardmore lagoon in the spring and we actually had to apply to Alberta Environment to have a release so it wasn’t an uncontrolled release. These have to be repaired because they have to find out what is causing that ballooning. The groundwater pressure? Is it some sort of gases?”

BCL Engineering consulted on the projects since July.

It was reported that the lagoon problems started in 2011, but were not investigated at the time.

The whaling (ballooning) limits the amount of space within the lagoon, and that’s where the conversation turned during Wednesday’s council meeting on the amount of industrial waste dumped into the Ardmore lagoon.

M.D. administration will prepare information to better understand what is being dumped into the lagoon and where it’s coming from.

“Were they sized appropriately for both the residential use in the hamlets that they’re near, plus the farm and acreage septic tanks that are pumped out? They have to go somewhere. Then you’ve got industrial use as well.

“Industrial was being thrown around a lot, but a lot of the septic that is hauled there is also from farms and acreages. It’s going to be a bigger question there. Are they sized properly? And looking at whether industrial is allowed in those,” said Sawchuk.

One lagoon will be worked on at a time beginning later this year.