McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant Design-Build

The McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant was designed to provide enhanced primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment for the Capital Regional District’s core area and will handle flows beyond 2040. AECOM, in a joint venture, provided design-build services for the 108-megalitre/day tertiary wastewater treatment plant, the Victoria Harbour crossing, and the marine outfall at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt. The project includes a cast-in-place concrete wastewater plant with treatment of raw sewage received from two regional pump stations.  

Residual solids from the plant are piped to the Hartland landfill, where they are turned into Class A biosolids, a high quality by-product treated to be safe for further use. The conveyance system carries wastewater from the core area to the treatment plant.  

The project includes features that allow for an aesthetic and environmentally sensitive expression, while simultaneously providing critical infrastructure that includes protections for future climate and population changes. More than 80% of the roof of the operations and maintenance building is planted to increase on-site habitat and provide stormwater management, and the seawall system reflects the surface of the exposed rock shorelines. The mass and length of the wall is broken up visually with different materials. 

Sustainability and energy efficiency were key considerations, leading to the inclusion of effluent heat recovery, green roofing, EV charging stations, LED lighting, effluent water re-use, and power monitoring. Given the proximity of residential homes to the treatment plant site, the plant was also designed to strictly control odour emissions and operational noise. 

A major component of the facility is an education and interpretive centre on the second floor of the operations and maintenance building to educate the public on the water cycle and stormwater management. An observation deck serves as the front porch and gathering place for visitors to the site.