Great news Halton! The Drumquin Wastewater Pumping Station is now complete and ready to serve residents in Georgetown and parts of Milton! This major infrastructure project strengthens daily wastewater service and will support new homes and businesses in North Halton.
What is the Drumquin Wastewater Pumping Station?
The Drumquin Wastewater Pumping Station (Drumquin) is part of a $180 million investment in our wastewater infrastructure, including 15 km of new truck mains that safely move wastewater south to the Mid Halton Wastewater Treatment Plant in Oakville.
Completed in 2025, Drumquin marks a major milestone in our ongoing work to keep our wastewater systems strong, reliable and ready for the future. It is part of Halton’s larger, long‑term strategy playing an essential role in supporting:
- existing neighbourhoods
- local housing targets and servicing community growth
- sustainable, environmentally responsible and efficient infrastructure
What makes Drumquin unique—and why it matters
Drumquin was thoughtfully designed with unique features that set it apart from other stations. This includes:
- High capacity for a growing region: As one of the largest stations in Halton, Drumquin can serve up to 480,000 current and future residents, supporting communities in Georgetown and parts of Milton and enabling new development along the Trafalgar Road corridor.
- High-performance operation: Drumquin can move up to 1,200 litres of wastewater per second, ensuring dependable, day-to-day service and efficient flow to the Mid-Halton plant.
- Efficient, gravity-based design: Drumquin only uses pumps when needed to lift wastewater to a higher spot in the ground, allowing it to continue flowing by gravity. This approach reduces energy use, lowers operating and maintenance costs and minimizes environmental impact.
- Built-in resilience: With extra capacity to handle sudden increases in flow during extreme weather or unexpected events, Drumquin helps prevent overflows and protects nearby waterways.
This project represents smart planning, strong engineering and a proactive approach to delivering reliable wastewater services today while supporting long-term growth across Halton.
How does a pumping station work?
Getting wastewater safely back into the environment is more complex than you might think. As a lift station that is part of gravity-based system, here’s how Drumquin moves wastewater as efficiently and effectively as possible:
- Gravity does most of the work: Wastewater exits your home or your business and enters a large network of underground pipes. These pipes are installed on a gentle downward slope so gravity can move the wastewater towards a treatment facility.
- Pumps help when gravity isn’t enough: Pipes can only be buried so deep, and wastewater can’t move uphill on its own. As a lift station, Drumquin can lift the wastewater back up closer to the surface so it can continue flowing by gravity toward a treatment plant.
- The journey continues to treatment: Once it reaches the treatment plant, the water is carefully cleaned and safely returned to the environment.
Halton’s Long-Term infrastructure plan
Drumquin is just one project in a much larger, long‑term investment plan. Halton currently has $5.2 billion in planned water, wastewater and transportation investments through 2031.
The Region’s newly updated Integrated Master Plan, recently approved by Regional Council, also outlines how we will continue to build sustainable, resilient, and future‑ready communities from 2031 to 2051.
This plan ensures we are building the right infrastructure at the right time, supporting growth while protecting our natural environment.
More fast facts about your wastewater service
- In 2025, we treated over 83 billion litres of wastewater across Halton.
- The Region manages and maintains over 2,000 km of wastewater pipes, 84 pumping stations, and 6 wastewater treatment plants.
- It takes over 30 highly trained staff to keep our wastewater system operating safely behind the scenes. They work 24/7 to make sure you get incredible, reliable service.
Learn more
Want to dive deeper? Explore more about how we manage wastewater and plans for the future: