The rise in the price of natural gas is costing the City of Montreal dearly, which must bail out the operating budget of its wastewater treatment plant by $3.5 million.
Posted at 12:15 a.m.
The Jean-R.-Marcotte wastewater treatment plant, located in the Rivière-des-Prairies district, in the east of the island, treats all of Montreal’s wastewater, which represents an average of 2.3 million meters cubes per day. It is the third plant of its type by size in the world.
The plant continuously burns the sewage sludge produced by its 21 settling tanks. “The four incinerators require a gigantic supply of fuel since normal operating temperatures are around 860 degrees Celsius. The fuel used is natural gas supplied by Énergir. Annually, the station consumes nearly 12 million cubic meters of natural gas,” indicate the municipal documents presented last week to the executive committee of the City of Montreal.
However, the price of natural gas more than tripled between January 2021 and August 2022, which caused the station’s energy bill to explode. The planned budget for the supply of natural gas in 2022 was 3.1 million, but it is now estimated that 5 million will have to be paid.
An additional sum of 1.9 million is therefore required to complete the budget.
“Furthermore, in order to ensure the smooth running of operations and to have the parts and accessories required for the Maintenance Division, an additional sum of $1.2 million is required,” indicate the decision documents.
Another sum of $400,000 must be used to pay financial compensation to Lafarge Canada for the discharge of rainwater from the City of Montreal into the Montreal East quarry belonging to the company.
“At the beginning of the year, the City of Montreal entered into an agreement with Lafarge to discharge its rainwater into [sa] Montreal East Quarry […]. A recent heavy rain event caused major flooding at the quarry, rendering Lafarge’s operations impossible for several hours. In these circumstances, Lafarge requires the City to compensate [financière] important,” the city documents explain.
Work worth more than $700 million is underway at the Jean-R.-Marcotte wastewater treatment plant to set up an ozone disinfection process to improve the quality of the water discharged into the river. By 2025, this technology will make it possible to eliminate almost all viruses, bacteria and pharmaceutical products from the water that will be treated there.