New federal funding for Neepawa wastewater project

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Published on Thursday, August 6, 2015

By Banner Staff

The second phase of a major wastewater project in Neepawa has received new federal support. On Aug. 1, Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette Member of Parliament Robert Sopuck announced infrastructure projects in the Town of Neepawa and the Rural Municipalities of Mountain, Dauphin and Harrison Park that will receive funding through the New Building Canada Plan’s Small Communities Fund.

For Neepawa, the money will go towards the second stage of construction and expansion for a trunk sewer line from the west junction of Highway 16 and Highway 5 West. The new line will detour the sewage flow from Westcreek and the care home, which currently has to go through the town on Third Avenue. Highway 16 west of Fifth Avenue sewage will also be re-directed eventually to this new trunk line.  As well, the line will have the capacity to serve the C.N. land and any possible development that will take place on Dominion Road south, such as the chicken barn land, should it ever be converted to housing.

The estimated cost of phase two is $2.3 million, which will be cost divided equally between the three levels of government. In November 2014, Neepawa received $400,000 from Ottawa for phase one, which involved the installation of a new trunk sewer to address high volumes of effluent experienced by the town. The provincial government and the Town each matched the contribution for a total of $1.2 million.

Mayor Adrian de Groot noted that this project is part of a larger plan for Neepawa to provide a reliable waste solution for the community’s growing west end.

“It’s certainly something we value as a community. We were concerned last year, when we only received [support for only phase one], but now that we’ve received this additional funding, that ensures that the project, the whole project is a reality as it was envisioned right from the beginning,” said de Groot. 

As part of the announcement, the R.M. of Mountain will construct a water reservoir to meet Manitoba Drinking Water Safety Act Regulations and will implement a new water treatment process to meet Federal Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.

The R.M. of Dauphin will expand the existing G3 Water Cooperative regional public water system. Phase 1 of this project will include the construction of approximately 99 household service connections and two pressure reducing stations in the municipality.

Using the existing waterlines, the municipality of Harrison Park will install a pump station and reservoir in the community of Onanole.