Almost half of the Town of Banff’s sewer mains have been inspected and cleaned at a cost of about $120,000 – and most are in good or very good condition.
But in some cases, officials say, wastewater pipes needed to be flushed through about 40 times, mainly because of a surprising buildup of grease and gravel.
“There’s no record of that project ever being done before and now we have a map of the hotspots,” said town manager Robert Earl.
“Operationally, we need to clean it more often to keep the grease and gravel out, but structurally it’s much better than we thought.”
Fifty-two per cent of the wastewater mains are considered in good condition, 25 per cent are in very good condition and 19 per cent are rated as fair. The remaining four percent are poor or very poor.
As part of 2011 budget deliberations, council directed administration to inspect, assess and document the condition of the town’s wastewater mains.
The original scope of the project was to cover 67 per cent of the wastewater mains, with a budget of $120,000. Only 40 per cent were completed.
Should council decide to continue the project, administration indicated they’d be looking at another $150,000, possibly more, to complete all of the municipality’s wastewater mains.
Councillor Leslie Taylor took a bit of a swipe at administration for saying the project was on budget, given the scope of the original project was not completed, yet most of the money was spent.
“That’s an unusual definition of ‘on budget’,” she said. “We should save the wording ‘on budget’ for when we achieve 100 per cent of the scope within the original budget.”
Taylor also questioned the conditions of the remaining wastewater mains.
“We’re not concerned about the other 27 per cent of this project? A pipe that has to have 40 passes to be cleaned sounds like blocked arteries to me,” she said.
Adrian Field, the Town’s manager of engineering, replied: “The fact a system can still function with so much grease is encouraging.”
The information gathered throughout the project will be used to develop a maintenance and replacement plan, as well as allow the Town to create a priority plan for road reconstruction.
