Metro Vancouver announced Saturday it has received joint funding for a new $700-million wastewater treatment plant on the North Shore.
The new Lions Gate Secondary Wastewater Treatment Plant will be constructed by 2020 on a 3.5-hectare site owned by Metro in the District of North Vancouver, while the plant currently operating at Squamish Nation, built in 1961, will be decommissioned in 2021.
It aims to contribute to cleaner waterways across the region by enhancing secondary wastewater treatment and resource recovery, and is being designed in a way that will allow flexibility for any future upgrades or expansion, according to Metro.
Metro chair Greg Moore said the plant has been a top priority and will provide “robust secondary treatment in a very environmentally sensitive way.”
It will serve 200,000 residents in the districts of West and North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver and Squamish and Tsleil-Watuth nations.
The project received close to 58 per cent of its funding from the federal and provincial governments, the largest outside investment in Metro’s history, Moore said.
Jonathan Wilkinson, MP for North Vancouver, said the federal government has committed $212.3 million while minister Peter Fassbender said the province has committed $193 million.
Fassbender said the plant is among projects underway that will “ensure that the pristine waters that we enjoy remain that way because of our commitment to enhancing our environmental footprint, and ensuring that anything that goes into the water is at a level of environmental friendliness that it needs to be for the protection of all of us.”
