Port Coquitlam will apply for a total of $10 million to replace a pump station that’s in poor shape.
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, council voted to apply for $5 million each from the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) and B.C.’s Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. Mayor Brad West and Coun. Dean Washington were not at the meeting.
Recommended in the city’s 2021 Maple Creek Integrated Watershed Management Plan and budgeted in this year’s capital plan, the Maple Creek Pump Station at 3000 Riverbend Dr. — off Westwood Street and on the northern side of the Coquitlam River — will cost $14 million to replace.
However, the municipality has already secured $5.6 million through a federal grant to complete the work, which is expected to get underway next year if the grant bids are successful.
According to a report from Melony Burton, Port Coquitlam’s manager of infrastructure planning, the existing submersible pump station is nearing the end of its service life after 34 years and the existing flood box flap gate and trash rack need to be upgraded so fish can get through.
The new pump station will also have seismic and structural improvements, and changes to its civil, mechanical and electrical systems.
A council resolution was required to endorse the two grant applications.
Maple Creek flows into the Coquitlam River, a tributary of the Fraser River, through the pump station and flood box.
South PoCo IWMP
Meanwhile, the city’s committee of council on Tuesday also authorized staff to consult the public about the South Port Coquitlam Draft Integrated Watershed Management Plan (IWMP).
A 650-hectare study area that includes the Baker, Harbour and Fraser River watershed catchments, the draft plan looks at the storm sewers, ditches, culverts and watercourses as they drain into the Pitt and Fraser rivers.
The draft watershed plan follows the city’s IWMP for Hyde Creek in 2004, of which an update is now underway, and the 2021 Maple Creek IWMP.
Once the South Port Coquitlam IWMP is finished, the city will tackle the North and West Port Coquitlam watershed plans.
Coun. Nancy McCurrach, council’s liaison on the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable, said the South Port Coquitlam IWMP work is important for the environment and she encouraged city staff to continue to reach out to streamkeeper groups.
Still, Coun. Darrell Penner warned some data and models collected for the draft report are already a decade old.
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