Gold Bar community engagement

We're working with the community to define our plant operations. With your help, we've developed shared goals and a long-term plan to guide how we will design, build and operate the plant for decades to come.

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Our shared outcomes = shared goals
Project drivers
Design principles: How we will achieve our shared outcomes together
Public engagement framework: How we engage with the community
Current engagement activities
Previous engagement activities
Documents from previous engagement activities
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Working together to plan for the future

We believe in the importance of working with the Edmonton community. Your feedback has helped us developed five shared outcome statements that we have built into our long term plan for the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. These written commitments were created with the Community and have been built into our long-term planning documents to guide how we will design, build and operate at the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant for decades.

Our shared outcomes = shared goals

With special interest groups, recreational users and residents near the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Edmonton, we established five shared outcome statements EPCOR and the Gold Bar community can commit to. These shared outcomes are also considered our project drivers and include:

Project drivers

Each of our projects is created to align with the Shared Outcome Statements and Design Principles that were established with input from special interest groups, recreational users and residents near the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. The icons next to each project indicate which Shared Outcomes are project drivers:

Quality of life: The Gold Bar wastewater treatment facility is operated, maintained and updated in a way that reduces impacts to stakeholders and improves quality of life regarding odour, noise and enjoyment of parks and recreation.

Safety: Community, public and worker safety and health are protected.

Relationship: An honest, transparent, trusting and respectful long-term relationship is developed between EPCOR and Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant stakeholders.

Environment: Pollution is prevented. The impact of the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant on air, land, water, climate and ecosystems is reduced.

Reliable, responsible and sustainable: The Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant is designed, maintained and operated in a prudent and responsible manner.

Design principles: How we will achieve our shared outcomes together

The Design Principles define how EPCOR will achieve the goals described in the five Shared Outcome Statements and provide a framework to guide the evolution of the site. We incorporate these into our planning documents for the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Public engagement framework: How we engage with the community

Working together, EPCOR and the communities around the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant created a public engagement framework, which outlines the different levels of public engagement and how EPCOR will get feedback or work with the community, special interest groups and recreational users.

Our 4 public engagement levels

Communication will be an important part of all these levels of engagement.

Advise: We will listen to and acknowledge concerns and aspirations and share how public input (if received) influenced the decision.
Refine: We will work directly with you throughout the process to ensure your feedback is understood and considered. We will ensure that your feedback is directly reflected in the alternatives developed and share how the public input influenced the decision.
Create: We will partner with you in each aspectof the decision including the development of alternatives and identification of the preferred solution. We will look to you for advice and information in formulating solution and incorporate your advice into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.
Decide: We will place the final decision making in your hands. We will implement what you decide.

Current engagement activities

We've managed a Community Liaison Group (CLG) specific to the ongoing operations of the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant for over ten years. The CLG provides an opportunity for members to learn and give feedback on our work to provide reliable and high-quality water and wastewater services. The CLG is a very important link to the communities surrounding the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. Members of the CLG are in the group for two years, and the group is comprised of 10 to 15 volunteers. The current CLG started in 2019 and meets several times a year.

We also attend community events, such as Highlandia and the Greater Hardisty Community Day, when possible to share educational information about wastewater treatment, talk with community members about our projects and operations, and answer any questions they may have.

We have a longstanding partnership with RiverWatch to support student learning. Over the past 18 years, more than 50,000 students have toured through our Gold Bar plant. In the summer of 2018, Gold Bar was part of RiverWatch's new River Ambassador Program, which brought community members by our plant as part of an on-water learning experience.

Previous engagement activities

The following is a list of previous engagement activities led by EPCOR pertaining to the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. We’ve also included summary documents from the engagement activities outlining the feedback provided by the community.

We hosted a virtual open house where participants were provided with information about several upcoming projects and opportunities to provide feedback. Participants also had the opportunity to get involved in virtual facilitated engagement sessions where feedback and input could be provided directly to EPCOR representatives.

In 2019 we organized a Citizen Planning Committee to take part in three community workshop sessions to focus on operations at the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment plant. These collaborative workshop sessions brought together neighbouring residential communities, educational and recreational groups, representatives from the City of Edmonton and other interested parties.

The sessions focused on how EPCOR can operate the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant in an environmentally- and socially-responsible manner that minimizes impacts on neighbours and area users, while still meeting the needs of the broader Edmonton population and Gold Bar's ongoing operations.

Participants either live near the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant or frequently recreate in Gold Bar Park, on its trails, or in the river valley near the facility. The workshops were held on February 27, March 19, and May 14, 2019.

Workshop reports:

Gold Bar community engagement

Our shared outcomes = shared goals

​Project drivers

​​Design principles: How we will achieve our shared outcomes together

Public engagement framework: How w​e eng​​age with the community

​​Current en​​gage​ment a​​​c​​​tivities

Previous engagement​​ ​​activities

Do​​cuments​​ from previous engagement activities

Sign up for email u​pdates

Project drivers

Design principles: How we will achieve our shared outcomes together

Public engagement framework: How we engage with the community

Current engagement activities

Previous engagement activities

Documents from previous engagement activities

Sign up for email updates