Pickering facility to treat more wastewater from York Region in coming decades, according to proposed legislation

Durhamradionews.com
Oct. 28, 2022

The Ontario government is proposing a plan that would, over the coming decades, would send more wastewater from York Region to a treatment facility in Pickering.

The plan, announced Tuesday, comes after years of debate over how to deal with population growth in parts of York Region. It follows recommendations by an advisory panel.

The move would cancel the construction of a facility on the Lake Simcoe watershed. The water that would have been treated there would instead flow to the Duffin Creek Water Pollution Control Plant along Lake Ontario.

The Duffin Creek facility currently treats all of the wastewater from Ajax and Pickering, along with 80 per cent of York Region’s. The facility is co-owned and co-operated by the two regions.

“Increased [population] growth over the next number of decades will increase the flow [by] only 10 to 12 per cent,” said Environment Minister David Piccini on Tuesday, in an interview with Durham Radio News. “This facility has the ability to handle over 600 megalitres [per day], and they’re operating at less than 60 per cent capacity. So we’ve got lots of room to support growth. And this isn’t growth happening tomorrow; this is growth happening outwards to the year 2051 and beyond.”

The sewer network that runs between York Region, Durham Region and Duffin Creek would be upgraded to accommodate more wastewater.

Lake Ontario versus Lake Simcoe

York Region is expected to welcome tens of thousands more residents over the coming decades. In 2014, officials were expecting Aurora, Newmarket and East Gwillimbury to have a combined population jump of about 153,000 by 2031 (however, that has since been revised to 2039 or later).

Houses require plumbing, and a debate has been ongoing over where that plumbing should flow to.

Before Tuesday, York Region was proposing its own wastewater facility near Lake Simcoe, which would have served the aforementioned communities. It would have sent treated water into the Holland River, which drains into Lake Simcoe.

According to reports, a number of groups and First Nations have expressed concerns about the health of Lake Simcoe, arguing the facility would put more phosphorus into the lake. Phosphorus is the fifteenth element on the periodic table, and is present in a variety of organic molecules that algae can use to grow. It is often present in wastewater.

The facility would have used a special kind of filtration called reverse osmosis to drastically reduce the amount of phosphorus in its outflow (as well, a side program would have cut the amount of phosphorus flowing into the lake in other places, as a way of compensating for the new wastewater).

However, the advisory panel argued the process would prove costly and produce more than double the amount of carbon emissions, when compared to the Duffin Creek option.

“Lake Ontario is a large receptor body, relative to other smaller bodies of water, and is more than capable of handling this,” argued Piccini.

Concerns about Lake Ontario

However, a discussion carries on over the impact of wastewater treatment facilities on Lake Ontario’s lengthy shore.

Residents have long complained of yearly algae blooms stinking up the waterfront.

In 2014, the Town of Ajax commissioned a study which suggested there were higher amounts of phosphorus near the Duffin Creek facility than there were further away from shore.

In 2021, Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier spoke against the idea of sending additional wastewater from York Region to Duffin Creek. “Lake Ontario already has a phosphorus-linked algae problem due to York’s sewage,” he said over Twitter. “Durham residents are done. Find another way.”

Around the same time that year, Durham Region officials were expressing support for York Region and their plans for the Lake Simcoe facility.

Collier commented briefly on Tuesday’s announcement, as did Regional Chair John Henry.

“With expansion of the existing York-Durham Sewage System infrastructure, Ajax Council remains committed to the protection of our near-shore,” said Collier. “The Town is reviewing the impacts of the decision and will have more to say within the legislative comment period.”

“The Region of Durham has received the report from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks of the York Region Wastewater Advisory Panel,” said Henry. “We will be reviewing it in the coming days and will provide comment once we understand the technical details and implications for Durham residents.”

“There’ll be no difference to the residents of Ajax,” argued Piccini. “In fact, [there will be] facility improvements over time. […] And what we know is that that area has a number of other challenges that all folks on the lakeshore experience with respect to stormwater, which is very different, [and] runoff; it’s a slightly marshy area.”

“They have the best facility on the shorelines of Lake Ontario,” he continued.

“We have incredible programs like the Great Lakes Local Action Fund, [and] the Canada-Ontario [Great Lakes] agreement […] that the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority are working [on] with us right now, to tackle algae, to tackle all of the things that we’ve heard from residents of Ajax,” he added. “That’s not going to stop. We’re only going to continue working with community groups on it.”

Infrastructure costs

The advisory panel estimated it would cost around $861-million to upgrade parts of the York-Durham sewage network over the coming years, as well as expand the Duffin Creek facility in a future decade.

This option was deemed the least costly of the four being considered.

It was not immediately clear how that would be divided up.

“York and Durham Regions currently operate under a co-owners agreement that sets out a process for how shared infrastructure is paid for between the regions,” noted a spokesperson from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

York Region has already spent about $100-million on its proposed Lake Simcoe facility, which is now set to be cancelled.

“What that facility on Lake Simcoe was proposed to do was something that’s been done nowhere on planet Earth, using heavily carbon-intensive reverse osmosis that we don’t see anywhere to treat wastewater on this planet,” said Piccini. “That came in at a price tag of well over $1.6-billion.”

“[The Duffin Creek option is] coming in at a price tag less than half of that,” he added. “So York Region will be saving over $800-million, almost a billion dollars with this solution.”