The Kaleden and Skaha Estates Sewer System took a step -albeit a small one - closer to reality yesterday after the regional district Environment and Infrastructure Committee approved the project for submission to the Building Canada Plan (NBCP) .
Describing the estimated $12,000,000 cost of the project “on the low side”, Chief Administrative Officer Bill Newell advised the board “not to ask for the moon” when making a selection to the Building Canada Program, a new grant program that replaced the Building Canada Plan grant program that expired in March. CAO Newell suggested more than one project submitted to the NBCP may weaken the application.
Area “D” Director Tom Siddon pondered the question of where the regional district could best put the money to use, noting that water quality was a regional issue, where “what we do with water affects every director downstream.”
The committee expressed widespread support for the project, which topped a list of 12 potential choices prepared by staff for submission. Some discussion by the directors centred around a proposal to break the project into two stages in order to better secure an opportunity for funding, but, it was pointed out, cost efficiencies would best be realized through a single stage approach to construction.
The Kaleden /Skaha Estates project is currently in the preliminary design stages. The project calls for an extension of the existing Okangan Falls seweage line north to the communities of Skaha Estates on the east side of Skaha Lake, and the lower, shoreline portion of Kaleden, on the west side of the lake.
Other sewer system projects submitted included West Bench and Sage Mesa Sewer System ($30,000,000), Gallagher Lake ($500,000) and Sawmill Road Sewers ($5,000,000) in the Oliver area and the Tulameen Sewer system ($10,000,000).
Similkameen based projects offered in the list included Olalla Water System Treatment, Tulameen Sewer System, Dikes in Keremeos, Tulameen Water System, and Olalla Flood Protection.
The committe approved the Kaleden and Skaha Estates Sewer System as its number one priority project for submission to the new Building Canada Plan.