$450,000 increase for Seventh Street Pump Station

The City of Nanaimo’s finance and audit committee voted to add $450,000 to the budget to upgrade the Seventh Street Pump Station on February 20, bringing the cost of the project to $1.45 million. Photo: Mick Sweetman / CHLY 101.7FM

Nanaimo’s Seventh Street Pump Station is getting an early upgrade after heavy rains in November 2021 overwhelmed the system. During the atmospheric river event, both of the system's pumps had to operate at the same time, meaning if one failed, sewers in the area could have overflowed.

At the city’s finance and audit committee meeting on February 20, Bill Sims, general manager for engineering and public works, said the budget for the project this year needs to increase by $450,000 from $573,887 to $1,023,887.

“The rise in price was sort of twofold,” he told city council. “One of them is due to the complexity of installing pumps in the middle of a live working station. It is significantly more complex than our engineering firm originally thought that's one piece of it. The other is that aluminum and stainless fabrication associated, came in a lot higher than expected as well.”

It will be funded by $288,000 from the Sewer DCC Reserve Fund and $162,000 from the Sewer Asset Management Reserve Fund.

The city previously allocated $1 million in 2023 for upgrades, and spent $426,113 by the end of that year. The proposed increase will bring the total for the project to $1.45 million.

Sims says the expansion of the pump station, which was originally expected to happen by 2031, should be enough for projected growth in the area but there are some factors that need to be taken into account for the full picture.

“The pressures on growth in the Chase River area, not only from the conversion of the DND property to reserve lands, the the growth desired at VIU as well as the the unknown impact of the transit oriented area as a result of the new housing bills in the province is going to place a lot of pressure on our downstream sewer system.”

The motion passed unanimously and will go to city council for a final decision on Monday, February 26.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.