Winnipeg’s South End sewage treatment plant is now meeting a key target to reduce pollution, while officials expect to complete its entire long-awaited upgrade by the end of next year.
Effluent leaving the plant and entering waterways began meeting key environmental targets through a biological treatment process in September, said Cynthia Wiebe, manager of engineering services for the city’s water and waste department.
“It’s a huge milestone for the city and the residents. And we’ve been working really hard to get there,” said Wiebe.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
The North End sewage treatment plant is the single largest point source of phosphorous to Lake Winnipeg.
Construction began on the $375.6-million upgrade in January 2018. At that point, the city expected to finish the plant by Jan. 20, 2022.
The city originally expected to complete it in 2012.
As previously reported, the plant first met the pollution targets through a chemical treatment process in 2023, once its effluent contained less than 1 milligram per litre of phosphorous and less than 15 milligrams per litre of nitrogen. Both of those nutrients eventually wind up in Lake Winnipeg and promote algae growth.
However, that achievement fell short of the provincial requirement to cut pollution through a fully biological treatment process.
Wiebe said biological treatment is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than chemical alternatives.
“The biological treatment has a lower life cycle cost because you’re not hauling all the chemicals (in for treatment.) The plant is operating with a lower carbon footprint, we’re creating less sludge.… It’s a much more sustainable process than chemical (treatment),” she said.
City officials now expect the entire South End plant to be completed by the end of 2025, with painting, landscaping and more extensive testing still to come, Wiebe noted.
“Now the contract requires that the entire plant operate without any issues for a month in order to be considered done.… Every piece is working but now it has to work as a system,” she said.
An advocate who lobbied governments to fund Winnipeg sewage treatment upgrades said phosphorous must be reduced as quickly and affordably as possible on future sewage projects.
“In terms of Lake Winnipeg, the compliance… (being) achieved as fast as possible is what matters,” said Alexis Kanu, executive director of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.
Kanu said it’s critical the city ensures its North End sewage treatment plant, which is the single largest point source of phosphorous to Lake Winnipeg, meets pollution targets as soon as possible through a separate, ongoing upgrade. She believes that could be achieved much sooner by expediting a chemical pollution reduction process, which the city began gradually implementing at that plant in June.
“It’s important to celebrate our successes, but it’s also really important to learn from the challenges. At the South End treatment plant we saw delays, we saw over-expenditures from cost estimates and we can absolutely expect that to happen at the North End treatment plant. So, now, let’s look for different solutions that will be more cost-effective and can be implemented more quickly,” said Kanu.
The South End plant upgrade was expected to cost $335.6 million years ago, before the price rose to $375.6 million.
The three-phase North End plant upgrade was once expected to cost $795 million. In June, a city staff report warned its price could rise from the latest official $2.38-billion estimate to reach about $3 billion.
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
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