After considerable investigation and a tour of the existing plant, regional leaders have decided upgrading the Columbia Pollution Control Centre (CPCC) is the cleanest way to go.
“The plan shows that the steering committee’s preferred option, upgrading the existing CPCC will cost $28 million,” explained Trail Coun. Robert Cacchioni, the city’s representative for the Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP). “The total capital cost of the plan is $42.5 million, however the additional capital costs will be spread over 20 years.”
Those numbers are based on a service population of 16,400, he added.
“If the service population does not increase, some of the capital upgrades will not have to occur.”
Factoring in 20 years of operating and maintenance costs, the total bill nears $55 million.
Cacchioni notes before the plan is presented for public consultation in June, the final numbers of Stage 2 are subject to review by a joint advisory committee.
If the project does in fact proceed following public consultation, the hammer will come down on taxpayers living in Rossland, Warfield and Trail - but just how heavy that blow will be remains uncertain.
“Once we go through public consultation and the ministry signs off, we can start making applications for whatever monies we can get through federal and provincial grants that focus on major infrastructure,” he said. “They (government) want us to do this, it’s not like we decided to do this on our own - we are looking to capture as much as 75 per cent from federal and provincial grants, but there will still be a hefty bill.”
Cacchioni says improvements to the centre, located near the Waneta Plaza, will upgrade waste treatment to Level 2, or about 97 per cent cleaner.