It seems the province isn’t willing to put their money where their mouth is. And so the NEWPCC hot potato gets tossed along yet again, as provincial financiers, environmental regulators, and city officials each take turns deflecting the blame.

Lack of funding puts deadlines at risk

According to a city plan released in February 2024, funding for the Phase 3 project needed to be secured by the end of 2024: “any delay will translate into a delay to the overall project end date.”

This is doubly concerning given that the same city report projected a 2032 completion date for Phase 3 – two years past the latest provincial deadline of 2030 set by the Environmental Approvals Branch.

Provincial environmental regulators were warned over a year ago that the lack of funding was a “critical schedule risk.” They were told outright that their 2030 deadline was unachievable. Yet somehow, they have still not managed to convince those that hold the provincial purse strings to invest in the Phase 3 project.

This alarming disconnect between the regulatory left hand and the financial right hand is, unfortunately, nothing new. For decades, environmental regulators have aspired to a NEWPCC licencing framework that lacks any buy-in from provincial funders.

High costs delay phosphorus compliance

The cost of the Phase 3 project has jumped astronomically to $1.491 billion, up 80% from a previous 2018 estimate – clearly not something the city can afford on its own, and driven in large part by provincial regulatory requirements.

This final phase of long-overdue NEWPCC upgrades is designed to meet a series of provincial licence conditions, including a limit on total nitrogen, a requirement to maximize biosolids reuse, and an order to use biological – rather than chemical – methods.

For decades, the cost-prohibitive nature of these provincial regulations has prevented the city from moving forward with phosphorus compliance – the one, evidence-based licence requirement that both scientific research and practical experience have shown us is effective in the management of algal blooms.

A phosphorus solution is at hand

Luckily, an evidence-based phosphorus solution is already in place at NEWPCC: in June 2024, the interim chemical phosphorus reduction solution came online – an efficient, cost-effective system paid for in full by the city itself.

New infrastructure, including a rail spur, chemical storage building, and a network of pipes and pumps, delivers ferric chloride to 13 dosing points throughout the plant. Wastewater treatment plant operators are able to customize dose timing, amount and location to maximize phosphorus removal while minimizing sludge production.

A similar system was used at Winnipeg’s South End Water Pollution Control Centre, enabling that plant to meet its phosphorus limit in August 2022. Phosphorus compliance was maintained via the chemical system at that plant through to September 2024, while the biological system was not yet complete.

Just as at the south end plant, chemical phosphorus reduction can be made to work at NEWPCC to achieve phosphorus compliance – well before the city's projected Phase 3 completion date of 2032.

If the province won't fund Phase 3, what's next?

The province isn’t ready to invest in Phase 3 in Budget 2025. Nor is it willing to enforce its own environmental regulations, standing by silently as the city sets its own extended deadline.

Has the province finally realized its regulatory approach to NEWPCC has been misguided?

After 20 years of delay, it’s time to focus on phosphorus.