Ucluelet has dipped into its contingency coffers to deal with a seepage issue at its sewage lagoon.
“There is a repair going on and all the appropriate government agencies are working with us and are aware,” said Ucluelet mayor Dianne St. Jacques during July 12's regular council meeting.
“Everything is going along well but it was unexpected so there will be monies that need to be spent that we hadn’t planned for, for this particular year, but we do have savings for such an event.”
After an in camera—closed to the public—meeting on June 28, Ucluelet’s municipal council approved spending up to $150,000 on the lagoon.
District CAO Andrew Yeates said the district is dealing with a “minor seepage issue” at one of the lagoon’s four cells.
“We have burlap setups to catch anything coming down the hill,” he said. “We’re not getting solids leaking out of there; this is more of a water leakage at this point.”
He said all four cells would be emptied and the outdated facility would be upgraded with modern materials.
“These are clay-lined, bunker-style lagoons built in the early 1980’s,” he said.
“There’s new systems out today that they didn’t have 40 years ago so it will be a polymer fused lining that will cover all of them and we probably won’t have any problems again for many, many, decades.”