Thamesville’s wastewater will be sent to Ridgetown’s treatment plant

Thamesville’s wastewater will be sent to Ridgetown’s treatment plant.
When it comes to addressing aging water pollution control plants, it’s a lot cheaper to connect to an existing facility than build a new one.
The Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission voted to approve a nearly $4.2-million tender to build the infrastructure to pump Thamesville’s wastewater to the Ridgetown wastewater treatment plant.
Clarke Construction of Ltd. of Blenheim was the successful bidder for the project that will be funded from the PUC’s sanitary sewer collection lifecycle budget.
A report detailed how the existing water pollution control plant in Thamesville, constructed in 1980, is currently in poor condition and requires significant upgrades to address the extensive deterioration.
PUC general manager Tim Sunderland said piping the wastewater from Thamesville to Ridgetown’s treatment plant is much cheaper than building a new plant.
Noting there are 10 water treatment and wastewater treatment plants in the PUC system, he said, “any time we can reduce the infrastructure and pump it to a facility that’s got capacity, I think that’s the way to go.” Sunderland said for several years, water has been pumped from Wheatley’s water treatment plant to serve the community of Tilbury, which enabled the two systems to be consolidated.
The Thamesville project includes building a new pumping station at the existing water pollution control plant site, an inline grinder at the Sherman Street pumping station and 15 kilometres of forcemain between Thamesville and Ridgetown.
Sunderland said the project is ready to have shovels put in the ground, noting it just needs final approval from Ministry of Environment and Climate Control.
According to the report at Monday’s PUC meeting, the project is slated to be finished by the end of September.