A badly-aging Niagara Falls wastewater treatment plant will undergo critical repairs, thanks to a monetary boost from the Ontario government.
A one-time emergency transfer of almost $9.7 million was recently approved by Niagara Region’s public works committee from the municipality’s wastewater capital reserve fund for work to the plant.
This, paired with a $24.5 million grant from the province, covers the entire project cost of $34.7 million.
The region received the provincial funding from the Ministry of Infrastructure, under the Municipal Housing Infrastructure’s Health and Safety Water Stream program, which provides project funding for 73 per cent of eligible costs.
“The project is a high priority because the primary clarifiers are deteriorating (visible concrete damage) and key components have already been compromised, with failures anticipated as deterioration continues,” reads a report by Niagara Region project manager, engineering, water and wastewater services, Josh MacArthur, to the public works committee.
“The current state poses a high and increasing risk to treatment reliability, environmental compliance approval and Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks compliance, environmental outcomes, and unplanned costs due to reactive maintenance, unplanned outages and capital cost escalation,”
The plant, located at 3350 Stanley Ave., has six primary clarifier tanks that, due to the aforementioned damage and sludge collection equipment, is in the end-of-life stage. According to the report, “continued deferral increases the likelihood of unplanned outages, progressive loss of primary treatment capacity and more extensive (and more costly) repairs as deterioration advances.”
The facility was originally constructed in 1964, featuring preliminary treatment, primary treatment and disinfection. A secondary treatment was added in 1986.
The work involved includes evaluating the feasibility of converting two primary clarifiers into dedicated storm treatment tanks and assessing how this modification would impact the facility’s ability to meet treatment requirements under all flow conditions. The next step will be the design and construction of required structural improvements to all primary clarifier tanks, and replacement of all sludge collection equipment. Once complete, this will improve reliability, reduce maintenance costs and significantly lower the risk of equipment failure and service disruptions.
As per the report, “Failure to complete these upgrades presents a material operational and compliance risk. A failure of primary treatment capacity or performance would compromise the plant’s ability to properly treat incoming sewage, increasing the likelihood of treatment bypasses and/or partially treated discharges to the environment. Ongoing instability in primary treatment would also constrain or delay other essential plant improvements until the primary treatment system is restored to a reliable condition, further increasing lifecycle costs and operational risk.”
According to Lindsay Jones, associate director of water-wastewater engineering, Niagara Region, the project is currently in the detailed design phase with the contract awarded to Stantec Consulting Limited in August 2025.
The report states the project currently has an approved capital budget of $500,000 for design and no funds approved for construction to date.
Construction is planned for 2027, at which time the project will be posted for tender/bid.
