The City of Cranbrook is set to begin their desludging operations on the wastewater lagoons starting July 4 with cell one.
The City says it’s an important project that will help reduce odours, however there will be significantly more odour present while the work is being completed.
“It is important for the public to understand that the odour issues may increase significantly once the desludging and berm upgrade work is started,” said Curtis Penson, Manager of Engineering and Field Services with the City. “Once the work is finished though, we will notice a very significant improvement in the odour issue - short term pain for long-term gain, essentially.”
The city adds that they will be providing continuous updates to the public while the work is happening, and that there will be several other upgrades taking place while the desludging work is done. Some of the work includes berm upgrades, bypass piping and diffuser upgrades. The upgrades will bring cell one into compliance with the City’s permit with the Ministry of Environment.
There are several phases to the wastewater lagoon project as a whole, the first of which was completed last year for $4.5 million. Phase one involved installing a new trunk main that enters the lagoons from the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Highway 3.
“This important project would not have been able to be completed without more than $7.3 million dollars in funding from both the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia, awarded in early 2021,” the City said in a release. “The City of Cranbrook gratefully acknowledges the financial commitment of both the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia toward this important environmental work.”
More than $4.1 million in project funds comes from the Government of Canada’s Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) – BC - Rural and Northern Communities Infrastructure Stream (RNIS), and over $3.2 million is provided by the Province of British Columbia. The City is contributing a total of $822,066 to the project.