Upgrades to a community wastewater system in Six Nations are nearing completion.

On Nov. 7, Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) approved a payment towards AECON Six Nations Joint Venture's current project involving upgrades to the local wastewater system.

During the first phase of upgrades in the project, solar power mixers were installed into the wastewater lagoons to add capacity. The current and final upgrade that the funding will be going towards is a force main line that will run from the pump station located on Fourth Line Road in Ohsweken directly into the wastewater lagoons.

Michael Montour, Six Nations director of Public Works, said the upgrades will alleviate issues that arise with heavy rain and snow melt periods.

The director added that everything has gone quite well on the project and work by AECON Six Nations is nearly finished.

Chief Mark Hill said that he was happy the work was being done and that he hopes to explore different avenues to finish similar environmental projects possibly involving collaboration with nearby universities.

"[We] can look to see if there's other opportunities in terms of funding and partnership with universities to do this type of work," he said. I know there's a lot of expertise in different areas, and that was one of the discussions I had with the Indigenous Education Council of McMaster on really amping up our partnerships with indigenous communities on these types of initiatives, especially in the environmental sector."

SNEC approved the payment of $382,326.71 to AECON Six Nations for the upgrades being finished on the wastewater lagoons. The total project funding from SNEC was $714,925.00.

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