City Council has requested an inquiry on a potential sewer line servicing the Village of Blackfoot. The County of Vermilion River approached Lloydminster to allow the village to connect to the city’s sewage system to be treated at the future Wastewater Treatment Facility.
The request comes after Blackfoot’s lagoon system is no longer able to treat the communities sewage. On Monday, the council approved a memorandum of understanding which will give the two communities a larger outlook on the potential project such as the costs to connect and the ongoing operating costs.
Deputy Mayor Aaron Buckingham says the MOU is not a commitment to the project but is opening up a conversation between all parties. He adds the city is still working diligently on securing funding for the treatment plant.
“The Potential is there to be able to have regional cooperation opportunities with things like the line from Blackfoot where we can take that from them, and charge them accordingly of course for taking care of that.”
The City says it’s in the final stages of securing funding for the estimated $80 million treatment facility. Buckingham believes showing interest in assisting Blackfoot could help improve the City’s chances to secure government funding for the wastewater building.
“With a higher level of production and treatment, there is going to be a higher cost to run this newer Wastewater Treatment Facility then the current one,” Buckingham says the effluent quality coming out of the new facility will have a higher standard to align with federal regulations.
“If we can explore revenue opportunities to help offset the cost to the taxpayers in the city these are good conversations to have.”
Information collected by the administration will be reported at a future council meeting.