Residents of Castlegar are advised if they smell an unpleasant odour, its just the city’s wastewater treatment facilities.
The City acknowledges the smell, saying it owns and operates a dozen lift stations and roughly 75 kilometres of sewer pipe that collects wastewater and sends it to wastewater treatment facilities.
Sewage from the north end of town is conveyed to the North Lagoons on the north side of the Columbia River, and sewage from the south side is conveyed to the South Sewage Treatment Plant in the Woodland Park neighbourhood.
Wastewater is treated at these locations before being discharged to the Columbia River.
While normal for this time of year as temperatures increase, they are more noticeable this year than in the past.
This is for two reasons:
- The City recently installed Geotubes at the South Sewage Treatment Plant for enhanced sludge dewatering and biosolids storage. A backlog of materials is currently being processed, creating additional odours. Once the old material is processed, the City expects a reduction in odours.
- The North Lagoons have been receiving and processing more material than usual over the last few months and the aeration system has not been functioning at 100 per cent.
The City expects a reduction in odours from both north and south locations within the next few weeks.
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