The southwestern Ontario Township of Southgate has received a $3.4 million investment through the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund to expand the Dundalk Wastewater Treatment Facility, a goal local officials have been working to fulfill for a decade.
The February 2025 funding will go towards increasing the capacity of the community’s wastewater lagoon system, which treats all residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial sewage through four cells that operate in series. Approval of new developments beyond the existing rated wastewater capacity of 1,832 m³ per day cannot occur without boosting treatment capacity.
While the wastewater facility is currently operating at just 60% of that capacity, an environmental assessment report indicates that “the facility has committed a significant amount of the remaining reserve capacity to new development.” Already, projects have been placed on hold, local officials explained.
“I am ever-grateful to the provincial government for this vital investment in Dundalk,” said Southgate Mayor Brian Milne in a statement. “The reality for growing communities is clear — in order to build more housing and create more jobs, we need the infrastructure to do it.”
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According to the recent environmental assessment, the wastewater lagoon system’s fourth cell discharges into the fifth pond, which is an aeration cell. The effluent from the aeration cell is discharged into a tertiary treatment building complete with chemical feed, flocculation tank, and sand filters. Effluent then travels from the filter through a post aeration channel to increase dissolved oxygen, prior to discharge into the Foley Drain, which is a tributary of the Grand River.
Local officials say they plan to reduce inflow and infiltration into the sanitary sewer collection system, implement water conservation methods, as well as expand and optimize the existing wastewater treatment system.
Following a review by Triton Engineering, the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) and the Township, local officials are also considering a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) with polishing filter systems for the facility.
The community is located in the upper reaches of the Grand River watershed approximately 95 km northwest of Toronto. Southgate was formed in 2000, when the Village of Dundalk, the Township of Proton and the Township of Egremont were amalgamated.
