Blake Ellis/The Independent

The decommissioning of the sewage lagoon at Lambton Centennial Public School will cost $2.5 million.
Work is continuing on the project which is well into its second phase.

The school board discovered the school’s lagoon was at the end of its life during the 2023-24 school year and a plan was formulated for its decommissioning. The school was unhooked from the lagoon and tanks were placed on site to collect the sewage from the building until a new septic system could be constructed.

The school’s new septic system has been fully installed with the final hook up taking place in October, said Associate Director of Corporate Servcies Brian McKay of Lambton Kent District School Board. Now contractors are working on the decommissioning of the lagoon.

The $1 million construction of the septic system came in on budget, said McKay, but the decommission of the lagoon is expected to cost more than the first phase of the project, with an estimate of $1.5 million.

The decommissioning of the lagoon is expected to take another five to seven working days before that project is complete. The work is dependant on the weather, said McKay.

Where the sewage from the lagoon is being taken to the Petrolia Sewage Treatment Plant. When the project is complete, the lagoon will be backfilled and many will not even recognize that a lagoon had been previously on the site, says McKay.

The lagoon was constructed in the late 1960s.