[Area A, B and municipalities of Trail, Rossland, Warfield, Montrose, Fruitvale]

The East End Regional Sewer Service collects liquid waste from the City of Rossland, Village of Warfield, City of Trail and the Rivervale/Oasis Sewer Service for treatment at the Columbia Pollution Control Centre (CPCC). The flows from each community are measures and the costs for running the service are charged to each community based on the monthly flow measurements.

Manager of Infrastructure and Sustainability Goran Denkovski – 250.368.0227

[Area B] The RDKB owns and operates a sewer collection system that services the communities of Oasis and Rivervale in Electoral Area ‘B’/Lower Columbia-Old Glory. The collected liquid waste is then connected to the East End Regional Sewer Service to be treated by the Columbia Pollution Control Centre (CPCC).

For more info, check out Rivervale/Oasis Sewer Bylaw 1798
Manager of Infrastructure and Sustainability Goran Denkovski – 250.368.0227

[Area B -- plus]

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) owns the Columbia Pollution Control Center (CPCC), which is located in Trail.  The CPCC is a primary level sewage treatment facility that provides regional wastewater treatment and disposal for approximately 14,000 people residing in the municipalities of Trail, Rossland and Warfield, as well as the two smaller adjacent communities of Oasis and Rivervale.  Each of these areas retains the responsibility for wastewater collection at the local level.

The treatment plant consists of screening of the influent wastewater to remove trash and coarse solids, followed by gravity settling to remove grit, and primary sedimentation to separate crude solids from the raw wastewater. The treated water is then disinfected by using chlorine gas, and de-chlorinated prior to its discharge to the Columbia River via an outfall. Waste solids from the primary clarifiers are stabilized in two anaerobic digesters and then dewatered using a belt filter press, with disposal of the dewatered biosolids to landfill (for inclusion into current composting activities).

Future improvements to upgrade the existing plant to secondary treatment or to construct new facilities in an alternate location are currently being considered in the RDKB Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP).

Liquid Waste Management Plan 
The RDKB Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP) has been approved by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change in 2020. The LWMP has been prepared in accordance with the Environmental Management Act (EMA) and the Minister has deemed adequate public consultation has taken place as no mechanism for appeal is available after ministerial approval (see EMA Section 27(2)). At this point a monitoring and implementation committee has been formed (see EMA section 6.2) to ensure proper plan implementation. The director will issue operational certificates for each facility and the RDKB will proceed with implementation procedures contained in the plan.

Stage 3 Liquid Waste Management Plan

Manager of Infrastructure and Sustainability Goran Denkovski – 250.0368.0227

[Area C]

The RDKB owns and operates the Christina Lake Solar Aquatic System, a tertiary waste water system that in time, should become an economically, self-sustaining facility over-time. The wastewater treatment technology for this system processes raw sewage effluent to advanced tertiary treatment levels for unrestricted reuse.

The system, which was built in 2010, includes a process design with full quality assurance and quality control components and operational strategies. Residuals in the form of sludge and plant biomass are processed at the treatment facility, using worm (vermiculture) composting to produce a safe, usable soil amendment. The CLAC SAS is capable of treating 22.5 m3/day but is expandable as other developments occur (such as a connection to RV dump station, future local residential/commercial developments, etc.). At the present time, the wastewater effluent quality meets or surpasses all standards established by BC Ministry of Environment and the Interior Health Authority.

The Solar Aquatics technology duplicates, under controlled conditions, the natural water purification processes of streams and wetlands. Housed within a greenhouse to optimize conditions for biological activity, wastewater is circulated through ecologically engineered aquatic environments where the contaminants and nutrients are metabolized or incorporated into living plant tissue. The process combines ecological engineering principles with standard wastewater treatment concepts. By combining the biological components that work in natural water purification processes with proven wastewater treatment components, the Solar Aquatics process provides an enhancement on natural and conventional treatment processes.

The Solar Aquatics process uses fixed film substrate in the forms of plant roots and Aerobic Tank surfaces to provide habitat for microbes. The process also uses suspended growth biomass within the wastewater moving through the system. Activated sludge (hungry microbes from the end of the aerobic portion of the process) is recycled to the blending tank for reseeding high levels of these beneficial bacteria into the raw wastewater entering the system. By optimizing the conditions in the greenhouse, ecosystems that develop provide a higher degree of biodiversity (i.e. a wide range of plants and animal species) than other biological treatment technologies, thereby treating a wider range of contaminants and making this system more stable and resilient to shock loadings of contaminants.
 

Water/Sewer Emergency (8 am to 4:30 pm, M - F) Call +1 800.355.7352

Manager of Infrastructure and Sustainability Goran Denkovski – 250.368.0227