Stinkier sewage plant worth risk

A stinkier sewage treatment plant is a risk that’s worth taking to create a more efficient operation, Kelowna city councillors say.

Council on Monday told staff to keep exploring the idea of adding an anaerobic digestion system to the plant to reduce the amount of biosolids the facility produces.

Such a process, which uses micro-organisms to break down organic matter, could cost as much as $50 million and might actually worsen smells at the plant in the event of a malfunction, council heard from staff.

“When you’re talking in scientific terms, every option has risk,” said Coun. Gail Given. “It’s just a question of how big or small it is, and how it can be mitigated into the future.

“There’s risk in everything, but probably our greatest risk is doing nothing,” said Coun. Brad Sieben.

At council’s direction, city staff will spend $300,000 further examining whether anaerobic digestion should be developed at the sewage treatment plant, located between KLO Road and Raymer Avenue, and near to Kelowna Secondary School and Okanagan College.

A further report is expected in time for 2019 budget deliberations, to take place later this year or early next year.

Anaerobic digestion would greatly reduce the amount of treated material that’s currently trucked to a composing plant near Vernon, councillors heard from city staff.

Engineer Kevin Van Vliet said digestion takes place inside sealed containers, which under normal operating procedures lock in unpleasant doors.

“You can’t smell it until something goes wrong,” Van Vliet said. “(Smells) wouldn’t be a normal, daily thing.”

Given the enormous expense involved in anaerobic digestion, Mayor Colin Basran wondered if the cost of the operation might be shared with other Okanagan cities looking to reduce the amount of material produced by their sewage treatment plants.

Van Vliet said that was an option that would be considered, but cautioned the expense involved in trucking the material to Kelowna might make the idea unfeasible.