For Immediate Release
2004-06-29
For further information contact:
Cindie Ashton, Communications Officer, 546-4291, ext. 3116 (cell 329-3462)
WORK RESUMES ON THE CATARAQUI RIVER UTILITY CROSSING
Dredging of the Great Cataraqui River will resume early next week as crews prepare the river bottom to install the remaining sections of new water and sewer pipes. The Cataraqui River utility crossing project work was stopped to allow for the fish spawning season, which ends at midnight on June 30.
"In the spring, crews installed three pieces of new pipes, each just over three hundred metres long," says Jim Miller, Manager of Technical Service for Utilities Kingston. "This next stage of work will include dredging the river bottom in preparation for the three remaining 800 metre sections to be delivered and installed." This stage of the project is scheduled to be completed later this summer.
"Of the three pipes, two will be used to transport sewage from River Street to the Ravensview Water Pollution Control Plan. The third, a 400 millimetre pipe, will transport water from the King Street Water Purification Plant to City east residents", added Miller. The sewage pipes are one metre in diameter.
More information and images of the work in progress are available on this Web site.
BACKGROUND
The water main and sewage forcemains were installed under the river in 1955. The sewage forcemain conveys sewage generated by approximately 60,000 people living and working west of the river to the Ravensview Water Pollution Control Plant located east of the river. The water main carries water from the King Street Purification Plant west of the river to about 10,000 people living east of the river.
Since they were installed, both the water main and the sewage forcemain have operated without problems. In 1997, divers conducted visual inspections and found no signs of pipe movement or leakage.
However, these pipes are now almost 50 years old and, if problems were to occur, there is no backup in place for either system. Furthermore, the River Street Pumping Station, which pumps sewage through the forcemain, has insufficient storage to handle flows during wet weather events. As a result, combined sewer overflows to the river occur during heavy rainfall when storage capacity is exceeded. Combined sewers are sewers that collect sanitary sewage from buildings as well as rainwater and snowmelt from streets.
A provincial class environmental assessment (EA) was completed to determine how best to address system reliability and environmental protection concerns with the existing crossings. Several alternatives were considered in consultation with technical and community advisors and the general public. The preferred solution identified at the conclusion of the study was twinning of the existing water main and sewage force main by means of dredging. The Great Cataraqui River Utilities Crossing EA was registered on public record and approved in July 2001.
Detailed investigations were conducted over the subsequent year leading to preparation of the Great Cataraqui River Utilities Crossing Project: Preliminary Design Report, which confirms the technical feasibility of the proposed construction approach and provides design parameters for the new water main and sewage forcemain. Clearing a final hurdle, the municipality received technical approval of its use of the lands adjacent to the City of Kingston snow disposal facility on Division Street as a temporary storage and dewatering facility for dredged material.
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