St. John's sewage plant may demand big water tax hike

St. John's property owners could be facing a whopping hike in their water tax bill as costs spiral in building a sewage treatment plant, councillors have been told.

A scenario presented at Monday evening's council meeting would see a $168 increase in a homeowner's water bill, up substantially from the $440 currently levied.

A budget of $93 million was struck in 1999 for the sewage treatment plant now under construction on the south side of St. John's harbour.

However, the project is more than $38 million over budget.

Coun. Keith Coombs, who chairs the committee overseeing the project, said the size of the problem only became apparent as the pace of the project picked up.

"A lot of the information they've been able to glean [has] only been coming forward in the past six to eight months, when they got into actual construction," Coombs said.

Last week, St. John's and neighbouring municipalities Mount Pearl and Paradise said they would approach the federal and Newfoundland and Labrador governments to amend their cost-sharing deal.

The municipalities want the senior governments to pay a third of the extra costs.

Even if they do get that extra help, St. John's ratepayers will still likely have to pay more, in part because of increased operating costs, council was told.

The water tax is expected in that scenario to jump $128 per year.

Art Cheeseman, St. John's director of engineering, said the sewage treatment plant is no different from other large projects facing higher construction costs.

"During the course of the project, we did run into major issues with … construction costs rising astronomically, both in the way of labour costs and materials costs," he said.

Council voted last night to wait until next week's meeting to discuss the latest figures.