
Switching Rayleigh households from septic to municipal sewer service could cost between $15-$25 million.
Rayleigh and Karindale are two of the last Kamloops neighborhoods on septic, and the city says their system is starting to fail.
“The project itself would include likely a whole new network of gravity sanitary sewer mains, collecting sewage from the entire network. Multiple lift stations, probably – almost certainly – a crossing of the North Thompson River via pipe, connecting to the north end of Westsyde and our network,” utilities manager Liam Baker told council in January.
Impacted residents would get to vote on the project, likely by a petition, where more than 50 per cent of people would have to be in favor for it to pass. The voting would be similar to an alternate approval process, where someone is considered in favor if they don’t vote.
If voted in favor of, a Local Area Service would be created and impacted property owners would pay 80 per cent of the cost, with the City of Kamloops paying the other 20 per cent.
Mayor Ken Christian says the city will look for grant funding if the project goes ahead.
“In the case of domestic water and sewerage, there are a lot more grants available for those kinds of infrastructure pieces for municipalities. So I think hopefully we’ll be able to see something like 50-cent dollars to do those kinds of projects, and that makes them more economically viable.”
Rayleigh and Karindale have a combined population of about 2,110 people according to the city.
Baker says it could cost between $30,000-$40,000 per property, on average, to switch from septic to municipal sewage.
“If you have a septic field that works properly and you’re not looking to replace it, they may not be supporters of this idea. But they do have a lifespan of 30 to 40 years on average, and so they do fail regularly and lots of Rayleigh residents are experiencing that now,” Baker says.
The city expects a detailed study on the proposed project to come to council before the end of December.