Wastewater utility project still waiting approval

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Wheatland County invited residents of Lyalta and surrounding area to an open house regarding the proposed wastewater utility project.
Homesteads Development, Wheatland County councillors and staff were present to answer any questions that residents may have had about the construction of the utility lagoon for wastewater management.
Homesteads Development and the county are essentially playing the waiting game, until some details are finalized, at which time the public will know more.
“We’re waiting for subdivision approval at this point and that’s what we’re dealing with right now,” said Bill Maher of Homesteads Development. “We’ve been doing this for five years, our project, the sewer problem came up last year and Muirfield approached us to ask us how we were dealing with the sewer. That’s how this all developed. We said, well we might as well work together on this because we need one solution for Lyalta.
“We needed water and they had a water treatment plant and we came into an agreement. We’ll do the sewer and they’ll do the water. We’re trying to get it in place as soon as we can, because Muirfield has an issue that they’re dealing with.”
He admits that the project has been slow to get going, but now the construction has been steadily improving.
“From the beginning until now, we’ve had a recessive slow down. They’re saying that there is a slowdown now and those have a big effect on moving forward with the project,” said Maher. “Muirfield was underway and you saw their lots … there’s a fair number of lots sitting there but they have residents, so when they approached us we said ‘we’re not really ready’ for another year. But we’ll move forward if we work together.
Homesteads Development, in conjunction with Muirfield, believe they have a solution in place to help the sewage problem.
“We have a treatment process in place to take the sewage from Muirfield and the Homesteads and treat it up at that lagoon site, that is the answer and nobody else came forward with a solution to Muirfield,” said Maher. “We had to come up with a solution for our own project and that’s when we talked to Cattleland. We’ve come up with this process that’s a win for them because they need water for their fields and a win for us because we needed a place to build a lagoon. Muirfield got tied into that because they needed a solution to come into Wheatland because their sewage treatment with the adjacent county was coming to an end.”
The Homesteads Development are patiently waiting for the go ahead from Alberta Environment on the project.
Councillor Alice Booth offered her take on the project.
“The county can’t do anything until this is passed through Environment. This is a new project that’s never been done anywhere,” said Booth.
“Until Environment is satisfied of what this project’s going to be, how that effluent is going to be handled and all of that. Really there’s nothing the county can do to speed that up … that’s strictly Environment’s call.”
Booth added the county has some groundwork to do while the process is ongoing.
“What we have done is sent a letter to Alberta Environment, to let them know we’re supporting this project and they understand that we’re there with the group moving forward. So we’re on board,” said Booth. “We’ve already gave them permission for the pipeline and so the process starts after that approval is done.”