Warman City Council voted at a meeting on Monday, November 23 to award the contract for Phase 1 of the project to PME Inc., the company which submitted the lowest of two bids under an open tender process. The contract is for $1,948,065.21, including taxes.
The first phase involves sludge removal in the lagoon and adjustments to Cell #1. Work is expected to start as soon as the weather allows. The first phase is expected to be completed by the end of the 2021 calendar year.
The lagoon project will be done in three phases and is expected to take three years to complete. It is designed to increase the city’s wastewater treatment capacity to accommodate future growth and also improve the overall effluent discharge quality to meet Environment Canada regulations.
The improvements include increasing the depth of the existing primary and secondary lagoon cells, installing an aeration system in the primary and secondary cells, constructing a blower building for the aeration system and constructing a discharge pipeline to the South Saskatchewan River.
The federal and provincial governments are each contributing funds toward the project under the federal-provincial Green Infrastructure Investment Fund. The project received approval under the program in September, 2019.
The total cost of the project is $18.1 million, with the federal government chipping in $7.24 million and the provincial government contributing about $6.1 million.
The City of Warman is responsible for the balance of the bill, amounting to $4.8 million. However, a provincial Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP) grant of $1.5 million received by the city earlier this year has already been earmarked toward the project, bringing the city taxpayers’ cost down to $3.3 million.