Clean Production and Toxics

Community struggles to upgrade sewage treatment

Behind a high chain link fence lie three rows of hulking circular black metal equipment. These components are meant to upgrade the sewage treatment plant in Nipigon, Ontario, but instead they lie unused while Nipigon’s sewage system continues to dump hundreds of thousands of litres of poorly treated water into the bay each year.

Nipigon Bay, which is bordered by Nipigon and Red Rock on the north shore of Lake Superior, is the most northerly of the Areas of Concern designated under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Over the past twenty years, major progress has been made by the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, industry and the active members of the local communities in restoring the environment in the area. These actions have included log and debris removal from spawning areas, fish stocking, restoration of a brook trout stream, and upgrades to the Norampac mill in Red River. Perhaps most significantly, the community was able to persuade Ontario Power Generation to change the operation of their hydroelectric dams in the area to ensure maintenance of a flow adequate for fish needs.

But despite these successes, the Nipigon sewage treatment plant still provides only primary treatment of human wastes. This means that only the solids are removed before the wastes flow into Nipigon Bay, instead of treating the wastes to remove many of the contaminants, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, before discharge to the water.

Those three rows of equipment in the field in Nipigon are supposed to be used to upgrade that sewage treatment plant. The Federal-Provincial Infrastructure Program has put money in, but the municipality does not have the 2-3 million additional dollars needed to complete the job.

Nipigon and Red Rock are experiencing devastating economic conditions. In late 2006, Norampac closed its linerboard plant in Red Rock, laying off 300 workers.

Across the bay in Nipigon, things appeared more promising when at the end of that year local investors and workers saved a plywood mill from being closed down after Columbia Forest Products announced their intention to sell or close down the mill. But the celebration was short lived; a month later, the plywood mill went up in flames, burning to the ground. The result another 120 job lost. In total, 420 jobs disappeared in a community of approximately 3,700.

Today, the two towns are piercing examples of the economic fragility of so many northern Ontario communities that are based on undiversified economies. These economic conditions mean that the municipality of Nipigon has a very limited tax base. It is, therefore, impossible for them to come up with the money to stop discharging human waste into Nipigon Bay after only primary treatment. The Canadian and Ontario governments should step in and provide the extra 2-3 million dollars to help complete restoration activities in this Area of Concern.

© 2008 Great Lakes News.