Sewer

Water, Sewer & Drainage

Sewage Collection
When we flush our toilets, when we do a load of laundry or wash dishes, when we have a shower or a bath we are producing liquid waste. Liquid waste or wastewater are terms used for sewage. Everybody uses water. Everybody produces sewage. Some residents of Kamloops live in unsewered areas, and rely on septic systems to treat and dispose of wastewater, but most residents and businesses are connected to the City's sewer system.

Unsewered Areas
Unsewered areas, like Rayleigh and Heffley Creek, rely on septic tanks for treatment and disposal. Septic tanks allow removal of solids and floatables, and sub-surface trenches or beds provide evaporation of the liquids in a "septic field".

This form of sewage treatment and disposal takes place on the homeowner's property, and is typically called an "on-site" system.

Sewered Areas
Most of Kamloops is served by the sanitary sewer collection system. Used water flows from each home and business through sewer pipes. These pipes join the sewer main under the street or other right-of-way. There are more than 500 kilometres of sewer pipes under our streets carrying liquid waste to the Wastewater Treatment Centre.

Sewer mains transport the wastewater, by gravity wherever possible, into larger mains and eventually to the Wastewater Treatment Centre at the west end of Mission Flats Road.

Where necessary, pumping stations called lift stations move the sewage. There are 109 lift stations in our collection system. When the sewage reaches the Wastewater Treatment Centre, the treatment process begins.

Logo Contact
Public Works and Utilities
955 Concordia Way
Kamloops BC V2C 6V3
ph (250) 828 3461
fax (250) 828-3790
email publicworks@kamloops.ca

Note: All correspondence is entered into our system, and will be dealt with in due process. Please allow several working days for a response. Thank you.