Wastewater Planning for Community Health
AND Resilient Infrastructure
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS TRAINING, 2024
WHO THEY ARE
K’ómoks First Nation (KFN) is the governing body of the Island Comox people, with territory spanning the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island’s central-east coast and into Johnstone Strait. Guided by the Nation’s vision —“hɛhɛwčɩs; Hayuthela la xens: Moving Forward Together”— KFN is advancing community well-being while honouring lands, waters, cultures and languages.
K’ómoks is transitioning to implementation of a modern Treaty framework — reinforcing collaborative groundwater and watershed stewardship across the Comox Valley.
Strategically, KFN is strengthening internal systems and partnerships to deliver community-aligned projects—prioritizing critical water, sewer, and drainage infrastructure, and coordinating with local governments on shared services and emergency planning in a watershed that supplies regional drinking water.
WHAT THEY NEEDED
K’ómoks First Nation needed a disciplined planning frame to evaluate relocating its main sewage conveyance line within a broader regional program to replace an aging forcemain and upgrade pump stations. The regional works were designed to reduce foreshore and estuary risk by moving vulnerable pipe runs inland, hardening flood-exposed pump stations, and avoiding archaeologically sensitive areas in K’ómoks territory.
The Nation sought to align technical options with community priorities and stewardship responsibilities—keeping essential services running, protecting cultural heritage, and minimising construction-related traffic and access disruptions—while preparing to coordinate with municipal and regional partners on a shared system. Practically, this called for clear scope, a coherent view of risks and trade-offs, and clarified coordination pathways so decisions could be paced with confidence as new technical inputs arrived.
WHAT WE DID
Led a focused 3-day planning workshop that translated a corridor-scale conveyance decision into a single, Nation-led plan of work, making mandate and controls explicit through a Project Proposal: keep essential wastewater service running, maintain road safety and emergency access, protect environmentally and archaeologically sensitive areas, and set who decides what and on what timeframe.
Set the framework for delivery through a sequenced plan, captured in summary and detailed breakdowns, that pulled the work into one pathway: regional approvals with the Comox Valley Regional District, staged construction and traffic control, environmental and archaeological safeguards with a communications plan, and interdepartmental handoff to keep teams aligned.
Established a clear order of operations tied to incoming technical inputs and construction windows.
Strengthened coordination by mapping the sponsor path to Chiefs & Council and the regional district, identifying early risks tied to service continuity and estuary-adjacent exposures, defining simple decision checkpoints keyed to engineering milestones, and instituting a plain-language reporting strategy so leadership could track scope, risks, and next decisions.
RESULTS WE GOT
Project teams left with a decision-ready, Nation-led foundation to weigh conveyance options against what mattered most for the community. Non-negotiables were codified into shared evaluation criteria, and a service-continuity target was formalized so each choice was tested consistently for access, disruption, and protection of sensitive archaeological and environmental areas.
Teams were trained to identify risks early, brief leadership with consistent status reporting and next decisions, and keep analysis anchored to K’ómoks priorities as technical inputs arrived.
Governance and coordination matured. Roles and sponsor pathways to Chief & Council were clear, engagement with the Comox Valley Regional District and engineering partners was sequenced to milestones, and simple decision checkpoints created a predictable timetable.
Day-to-day readiness strengthened. A single order of operations gave departments a common reference point for dependencies and hand- offs, enabling disciplined staging of works. With safeguards up front and timing visible, leadership was positioned to make informed decisions.
IN NUMBERS
1 Conveyance-Line Planning Framework Established
A Nation-led framework codifying criteria with checkpoints and reporting to evaluate options on K’ómoks terms.
13 Deliverables Sequenced Into a Single Corridor Pathway
Aligning regional approvals, staged works & traffic control, and environmental / archaeological safeguards into one order of operations.
75% Service-Continuity Target Formalized
Set as a project standard for option comparison and maintaining essential services during construction.
