I might be up on my soapbox, but it always amazes me seeing governments slowly stumble through key issues.
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Luckily today, I’m not talking about modern-day Lloydminster. Instead, I can finally wrap up my sewage saga and visit 1979, where I finally have a more definitive timeline as to a dispute with the city and farmers.
Farmers east of Lloydminster and the city had been at odds for some time regarding the issue of what to do with sewage.
It was simple, farmers wanted a mechanical plant to be built, the city leaned toward an aerated lagoon.
The actual timeline was rather difficult to piece together. The amount of people who took credit for the sewage issue being fixed was surprisingly more than two.
It was such a hot topic that it became part of what the outgoing mayor of the time, Russ Robertson, would boast about during his campaign trail in 1979. He said it was his council that solved the sewage issue and was making headway on the water crisis.
In early October, it was reported that council decided to adopt an aerated lagoon that would be discharging into the Big Gully Creek. Having two publications in the city at the time gave two different views of what was going on. It seemed The Lloydminster Times focused on it quite heavily post-election with the new council helmed by Mayor Kay Matheson.
The farmers east of the city feared ecological damage from the aerated lagoon and often spoke out against the plan.
This new council is where the stumbling seemed to begin on this issue. While the previous council paid it little mind as they were about to head into an election cycle, for the newly elected individuals it was front and centre.
Saskatchewan Environment said they wanted this resolved or they’d halt all development, threatening to withhold approvals for further sewage and water-line extensions. They said they’d be willing to shut down the city’s
current sewage system until it was resolved.
The Times reported the squabbling had been going on for months, but Matheson said she wasn’t aware of the feud, despite being a councillor in the previous term.
“I think there were times when we could have been possibly alerted a little sooner and with more emphasis put on the problem,” she said in a Times article.
The city refused to make any information about the project public and didn’t want it to be talked about. Farmers, at a public meeting, said it would cost more than $8 million for the project, a stark increase over the originally proposed $2.4 million. The city, in an attempt to stifle the farmers, asked them to not speak publicly about the proposal.
After many meetings in a single week, the only information released by the city was a short press release.
“The city had proposed to build a new sewage-treatment facility including piping of the treated effluent to the North Saskatchewan River,” read a news release signed by Matheson and council.
A letter was written from the RM of Britannia supporting the city’s proposal, as long as the city restores the old lagoon site to farmland. A letter that Matheson was happy to see.
Thus ended the sewage saga, a new lagoon was in the works, the province was off their case and everyone lived happily ever after.
Oh ya, the title, I didn’t write that, I wish I did, it was a lede from The Times.
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