Sewer

Water, Sewer & Drainage

Sewage Treatment
Used water from our homes and businesses is treated at the City's Wastewater Treatment Centre. The primary purpose in treating sewage is to protect human health. In Kamloops, we have little heavy industry, so our main concern is wastewater from homes and businesses, which contains mostly organic waste. Organic waste is good for the garden, but bad for the river.

Organic wastes are high in nitrogen and phosphorus, which are two of the main ingredients in fertilizer. These nutrients enhance plant growth, which is good for your garden, but very bad for the river. For example, unchecked algae growth caused by high phosphorus levels will deplete oxygen from lakes and streams, killing fish and other aquatic life.

Our treatment process removes nutrients and solids, and disinfects the wastewater to destroy pathogens. We use a system of open lagoons or "cells" to treat our sewage. The Wastewater Treatment Centre (WWTC) covers an area of approximately 80 hectares and has a total storage capacity of more than 2 billion litres.

Approximately 30 million litres of wastewater enters the WWTC each day. The treatment process, described below, takes from 90 to 120 days from start to finish.

Pretreatment
All the wastewater collected from the sewered areas of Kamloops (called influent at this stage) arrives at the WWTC in a single pipe. A "bar" screen in this pipe removes debris such as eggshells, rags, plastic etc. This debris is de-watered by an auger and is buried daily in the landfill.

Primary Treatment (Sedimentation and Flotation)
The wastewater enters two cells where material which will settle or float separates from the water. Anaerobic (oxygen-hating) bacteria begin to consume the organic solids. This part of the process takes about 4 days.

Secondary Treatment (Biological)
Next, the wastewater moves through three cells with aerators adding air to the wastewater to encourage the growth of aerobic (oxygen-loving) bacteria. These bacteria consume dissolved and nonsettleable organic materials remaining in the wastewater. It takes about 10 days for the wastewater to move through these 3 cells.

Tertiary Treatment (Coagulation-Sedimentation)
After leaving the aerobic cells, the wastewater moves through two phosphorus removal cells where Alum (aluminum sulphate) is added. Alum is a flocculating agent which causes phosphorus-containing suspended solids remaining in the wastewater to clump together and settle to the bottom of these cells. A phosphorus sludge builds up in the bottom of these 3.5 metre deep cells, and is pumped into sludge drying beds periodically. The City is currently considering ways of turning this sludge into beneficial biosolids.

Disinfection
The wastewater then spends approximately 4 hours in a chlorine contact basin to kill pathogens (disease-causing organisms) in the wastewater.

Storage
The treated wastewater, which is now called effluent, is stored in two very large cells before being disposed of. This storage allows for complete de-chlorination, and usually lasts a minimum of 60 days.

All through the treatment process, the sewage is tested at the laboratory at the WWTC for many physical, biological and chemical properties, to gauge the effectiveness of the various treatment stages. Before the effluent is disposed of, it is tested to make sure that it meets the standards set out in our operating Permit, which is issued by the provincial Ministry of Environment. The characteristics of the discharge must be equivalent to or better than the limits shown in this table:

Allowable Limits
Parameter	River Discharge	Rapid Infiltration Discharge
5-Day Biochemical Oxygen Demand	30 mg/L monthly average	20 mg/L monthly average
Total Suspended Solids	30 mg/L monthly average	10 mg/L monthly average
Total Phosphorus (Apr 16 - Nov 30)	2 mg/L	2 mg/L
Chlorine Residual	Not detectable	-

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.