HARDING: Regina's Sewage Release 2014, Pt. 1 -

[Oscar]

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM REGINA’S SEWAGE RELEASES LAST SUMMER? Part 1

BY Jim Harding for publication in R-Town News March 6, 2015

Last summer, Regina released hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of untreated sewage into the Lower Qu’Appelle River and the Calling lakes. It was likely an all-time record for Regina polluting this watershed, which is one of Saskatchewan’s major recreational areas. We cannot let this slip from our memories. To prevent a recurrence we must shine a bright light on what happened.

BACKGROUND

On July 15, 2014 I sent a letter of concern to Regina’s Mayor and Council. I sent this as Mayor of the Resort Village of Fort San and on behalf of the Calling Lakes Planning District (CLPDC) and asked six questions. My questions were about the sewage volume, the time span of releases, the E. Coli and other contaminants involved, what permission was obtained, why there was no Plan B and whether the wastewater treatment upgrade would prevent such sewage dumping in the future.

Mayor Fougere responded on July 25th, indicating we would be sent an incident report. He referred to the Water Security Agency’s (WSA) claim that Regina’s untreated effluent was only 2% of the flow going into our watershed and reiterated what the WSA had said about there being many other potential sources of contamination. On September 4th I sent another letter where I provided more information about the magnitude of Regina’s effluent going into our watershed and asked whether there was any planned review to prevent this from happening again.

Mayor Fougere responded on September 24th. He acknowledged that the 2% figure was an estimate only for the bypass period, when there was such extreme flooding. He did not dispute that overall, Regina’s effluent accounts for at least 50% of the flow into the Wascana Creek and at least one-fifth (18%) of that going into the Lower Qu’Appelle. These were figures that I had previously received from the WSA.

The City’s own reports acknowledge the major role that its effluent plays in the water quality of our watershed. Writing in 2006 about the downstream impact of Regina’s effluent, Stantec consulting stated: “Regina effluent constitutes about 75% of the Wascana Creek flow in the summer and about 85% in the winter. In the Qu’Appelle River near Lumsden approximately 23% and 62% of the flow is attributable to Regina’s effluent in the winter and summer, respectively.” However, in spite of this, when pressed on its massive releases of untreated sewage the City still seemed to want to downplay its environmental responsibilities.

DILUTION NO SOLUTION

Unfortunately this matter was never clarified in public announcements from the City or WSA about the sewage releases. The emphasis on dilution likely distracted some public attention from the large amounts of untreated sewage and toxins that went into our watershed. It perhaps also distracted attention from the City’s inadequate and environmentally-risky infrastructure. But there was no way that residents along the watershed could deny what had happened with the putrid water right before our eyes.

My September 4th letter also asked whether, before the flooding events of summer 2014, there had been any review underway of the inadequate holding capacity of the City’s lagoons. The Mayor’s response indicated that the review referred to in the City’s 2013 Utility Budget report had to do with lagoons at Buffalo Pound and not those at the Regina wastewater treatment plant, where the sewage bypass had occurred.

It is still vital to know what if anything is being done to ensure that sewage bypasses such as occurred last summer won’t be repeated. And what if anything the WSA is doing to ensure that such a proactive approach is being taken by Regina! We have heard nothing.

CHRONOLOGY

As promised, the City’s incident report was forwarded. It was sent in the form of a Sept. 2, 2014 Memo from the global company AECOM, the City’s engineering consultants on its wastewater treatment plant upgrade, to the City’ s Manager of Environmental Engineering. This suggests that the evaluation was not done by City employees but was contracted out.

What does this memo tell us about the questions I had earlier raised?

It mentions that during June, 2014 “Regina received a total of 175 mm of rain, about 2.3 times the normal amount”. With increasing extreme weather it is now clear that there is a “new normal” for which all levels of government must prepare. It says, “To minimize the risk of the collection system backing up and flooding basements, flow coming from the McCarthy Boulevard Pumping Station (MBPS) had to be directly bypassed into Wascana Creek.” It says that the valve was opened first on June 29th, then “opened up further” on July 1st until July 3rd.

Elsewhere it says that on June 26th the City “began bypassing partially treated wastewater from the lagoons.” It diverted “part of the flow from the lagoons that normally flows to the tertiary clarifiers”. Then on June 30th “the City had to increase flow from the lagoons to (Wascana) Creek”. It also “began bypassing the flow from the tertiary clarifiers to the Creek by bypassing the UV disinfection stage”. From July 3rd to 5th there was increased pumping “to help with draining the lagoon to the Creek”. By July 5th UV disinfection was reinstated and by July 7th “the lagoon bypass valve was closed” and the sewage treatment system was back to “normal operations”.

NOT INFORMED

The memo says that the volume of untreated sewage released was estimated from the “flow metres and field measurements” to total 877,800 cubic metres (CM). This is broken down into 226,600 CM blended with clarifiers with UV, 381,600 CM from lagoons with no UV treatment and 269,600 CM from clarifiers with no UV.

The consultant’s memo to the City says that Sections 3.6-3.7 of Regina’s Water Permit allows such a bypass and that the WSA approved it. It says that the City informed the Spill Control Line and “informed downstream water users”. To my knowledge none of the municipalities along the Calling Lakes were informed; we found out about this sewage bypass through the media. It remains critical that we know why thousands of downstream settler and indigenous water users were not informed of Regina’s sewage treatment bypass.

In Part 2 I’ll look at Regina’s other justifications and give my conclusions.

Jim Harding PhD
Retired Professor of Environmental and Justice Studies
http://www.crowsnestecology.wordpress.com