Written By David Gomez, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
STRATHROY-CARADOC – The municipality has endorsed moving forward with a tender for upgrades to the Strathroy Wastewater Treatment Facility, selecting the option identified as the most cost-effective and operationally practical following updated technical and financial reviews.
At its February 2 meeting, council approved a motion endorsing Option 3, which would see the construction of a new aerated lagoon cell to provide redundancy at the existing wastewater treatment plant. The motion was moved by Deputy Mayor McGuire and seconded by Councillor Brennan.
The recommendation follows a request made by council in September 2025 for updated construction costs and a life-cycle analysis of potential upgrade options. The review examined four design alternatives, including concrete tank systems and a new lagoon-based solution.
Director of Engineering and Public Works Mark Ortiz explained that the selected option focuses on redundancy rather than increasing treatment capacity.
Councillor Greg Willsie asked for clarification on why two of the options appeared similar in scope despite different cost estimates. Ortiz explained that what is shown as two tanks in the design could function as a single structure. “There’s only one concrete dividing wall in that structure,” he said. “If that concrete wall was not there, it would effectively be one single, large tank… so think of it as an almost identical like-for-like replacement.”
Councillor Brian Derbyshire raised concerns about long-term planning and whether the municipality was committing to major infrastructure spending without first undertaking an environmental assessment (EA) to determine future capacity needs. Ortiz responded that the plant is currently operating at roughly half of its approved capacity of 10,000 cubic metres per day.
“Our average daily flow rate is about half of that,” Ortiz said. “So, we’re well off currently the time that we would need to start an EA, but it is something that we’re looking at in the next number of years.”
Ortiz also noted that while future expansion would require an EA, the current project has been designed with potential future growth in mind, including equipment sizing and piping. He emphasized that the upgrade would allow one lagoon to be taken offline for maintenance while maintaining full treatment capacity.
Following the discussion, council voted in favour of the motion, directing staff to proceed with issuing a tender for the project.
