Township applies for $1.3 sewage treatment loan

Cramahe Township Council has instructed Treasurer, Mora Chatterson to apply for a $1.3 million Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHA) loan to help pay Cramahe’s part of its impending sewage treatment expansion. Cramahe had been pre-approved by the Ontario Strategic Infrastructure Financing Authority (OSIFA) for a loan to cover the work but the CMHA terms are better.

On Feb. 13, 2009 the Federal and Provincial governments announced jointly that Cramahe would receive $4.25 million as part of a $6.4 million sewage expansion plan. At the June 2 Council meeting, Ms. Chatterson revealed that the township would take $750,000 from sewage treatment reserves and borrow the rest of its $2.1 million share.

Residents of Colborne now pay $480 per year for sewage treatment, one of the lowest rates in Northumberland County. If the CMHA approves the Cramahe loan, sewage rates will rise by just over $91 a year, less than $8 per month. Councillor Pat Westrope moved that council attempt to procure the CMHA loan, commenting that there was a significant saving to be had.

The loan, if it is accepted by CMHC, will be paid off in 15 years.

If council had approved the OSIFA loan, sewage treatment charges would have risen by about $100 per unit.

The first phase of the sewage treatment expansion project is expected to cost just under $4 million and will include a new effluent pumping station, an outfall pipeline to carry the treated wastewater out into Lake Ontario and a diffuser in the lake.

Phase two includes lagoon sludge removal and upgrades to the aeration system, to provide expansion of treatment capacity to 1,750 cubic metres per day. The current system was rated at 1,375 cubic metres per day when it was upgraded and approved in 1982.

Growth in the village of Colborne has been restricted by sewage treatment limitations. Because the stream below the treatment plant has low volume, another alternative is needed for the outflow.

With the new capacity the township hopes to take part in the intensification of growth which the province is promoting in its Places to Grow Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.