City to miss provincial deadline to complete targeted dredging of Chedoke Creek

The City of Hamilton will tell the province it will need until 2022 to complete targeted dredging of Chedoke Creek.

The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks has given the city until Oct. 31, 2021 to clean up what remains of a four-year long sewage leak.

READ: Billions of litres of raw sewage leaked into Chedoke Creek

But the city doesn’t expect it will finish dredging the creek until Q3 of 2022, about a year behind schedule.

Crews likely won’t even have shovels in the ground until at least the end of the summer, due in part to the rigorous approval process.

“The challenging part of this is actually getting to the point where we’re in the field,” says Andrew Grice, director of Hamilton water.

“Once we’re actually there doing the dredging operation, it’s more routine work for us.”

Before work can begin, the city requires approvals from a list of agencies, including the Hamilton Conservation Authority, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Transport Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Missing the ministry’s deadline could result in more fines for the city but Grice is optimistic the province will give an extension.

The city will be submitting its work plan for dredging on Monday.

The dredging alone will likely cost a minimum of $2 million, while improvements to the watershed could cost another $5 million to $6 million.

The city also faces potentially costly charges related to allowing the discharge of raw sewage.

READ: Environment ministry files charges over the Chedoke Creek sewage leak