Town engineer Jon Eppell is recommending that Tantramar expand its contract with Veolia Water Technologies to include the operation of the Dorchester water treatment plant. Tantramar council will consider the proposal at its regular meeting tonight at 7pm in Sackville town hall.
At council’s committee of the whole meeting in July Eppell said a request for a change in position from the current staff person operating the Dorchester plant prompted the town to explore the outsourcing of the service.
“We went to Veolia, who we’re all very familiar with in Sackville,” said Eppell. The global water treatment company has been operating the Sackville plant since 2007, and it also operates the Moncton water treatment system.
The Dorchester contract would cost the town an additional $2000 per week, or $104,000 per year, with additional costs for overtime and emergency services. There will also be about $12,000 in technological upgrades for Veolia to take over the system.
The Veolia contract amount is not currently budgeted, but a staff report says the funds will come from “salary savings within the Dorchester portion of the Utility Budget,” for 2023, and then will be budgeted accordingly in 2024. Overall, this will be an increase in utility expenses, as the staff person currently operating the plant will be reassigned to other utility duties.
“We have a great deal of confidence in Veolia,” Eppell told council. “The staff currently operating the [Dorchester] plant wishes to do something else within the utility group, and so we would accommodate that by implementing Veolia.”
Eppell said the other reason for contracting out the service is the ability to comply with provincial rules, which require a level 1 and a level 2 operator. Currently, Dorchester is operating with one level 2 operator, and it’s not easy to come by qualified personnel. “It is very difficult to get water treatment operators and it takes a great deal of training to get them there,” said Eppell.
Dorchester councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell had some concerns about outsourcing the care of the water treatment plant, and pointed out that Veolia’s contract with the city of Moncton, arguable the company’s anchor client in the region, was up next year.
“What if Moncton didn’t go with them anymore?” wondered Wiggins-Colwell. “Where would that put us?”
“You’re correct in that their contract with Moncton does come up for revisiting next year,” replied Eppell. “Presumably Moncton will call for proposals or they may choose to do it in-house. We don’t have inside information on that at the moment.”
Eppell pointed out that in order for Moncton to operate in-house, the city would face the same challenges of finding and retaining trained water treatment operators. Eppell also pointed out that since Sackville is already serviced by Veolia, Tantramar would face the hypothetical problem whether or not Dorchester is included in the contract.
Eppell said it’s possible that in future the size of Tantramar’s treatment plants could reach a scale that would justify in-house operating staff. “But right now, we would barely have enough work at the two water treatment plants, I would recommend, for a one full time position,” said Eppell. “So it becomes difficult to justify having more staff on to take care of that.”
Wiggins-Colwell also expressed concern that not having local water treatment staff could compromise safety, but Eppell said that Veolia would visit the plant twice per week and then monitor the system virtually.
“Veolia have someone on call 24/7,” said Eppell. “They have a SCADA system that they have full control of the plant virtually, from their phones and tablets, wherever they are. And they have the ability to alert us if they get alarms from the system,” said Eppell. “So they are virtually there, even though they’re physically not there.”
Back in 2007 when the town of Sackville first contracted out its water treatment operations to Veolia, there was some controversy over the loss of in-house staff, and concerns that the water treatment plant was being privatized.
“I was here when we hired Veolia,” said councillor Bruce Phinney. “They do a great job, and it will be cheaper in the long run.” Councillors Allison Butcher and Barry Hicks also added their approval of Veolia’s work to date on the Sackville water treatment plant. Hicks noted the some of the concern in 2007 came from the town’s union.
“There hasn’t been a specific conversation with the union about this,” said Eppell in July. “I don’t think it’s going to be an issue. They know that there is no membership that has got the qualifications to do the job now.”