Province extends in-water permit for Thornbury sewage outfall to Dec. 31

The province has given the Town of The Blue Mountains more time to finish laying the new outfall pipe for the Thornbury Wastewater Treatment Plant into Georgian Bay.

The Ministry of Natural Resources approved an extension of the in-water work permit through to Dec. 31, 2026, on Thursday, Oct. 15, the Town said in a notice Friday. All other approvals remain in place, the Town said.

The extension comes with new conditions to protect fish, according to the Town. They include turbidity monitoring before and during dredging, a turbidity curtain around the dredging area, daily inspections with an underwater camera and fish finder, fish rescue and release as needed, and a "soft start" that taps the lakebed before dredging to move fish away. The Town said a certified aquatic biologist will be on site.

The Town said its contractor resumed dredging on Oct. 7. Rather than installing the full 640-metre section of buried pipe as a single piece, it will now go in shorter segments, starting with the first 200 metres.

A heavy-duty jack-up barge and another excavator will be "floated from Owen Sound by tugboat," because the equipment is too large to deliver directly to the site, the Town said.

"Current schedules call for in-water work to be completed by mid-December," the Town said. Shoreline restoration follows in spring 2027.

Your turn

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