The City of Winnipeg operates three large treatment plants to treat millions of litres of wastewater that is collected through a vast network of sewer pipes from homes, businesses and industries. Sewage and other liquid wastes which make up wastewater, are processed in the plants and released as treated effluent to the Assiniboine and Red rivers, which merge and flow into Lake Winnipeg.
Our wastewater treatment systems are in place to protect public health and the freshwater environments of the local rivers and Lake Winnipeg.The City has continually upgraded the three treatment plants since they were built to keep pace with city growth and changing regulatory standards. Over the next 20 years, we will invest hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) and bacteria (fecal coliform) levels in final effluent to meet the levels specified in the Provincial Environment Act licences.
The City has applied to the federal Canadian Strategic Infrastructure Fund (CSIF) for money to help pay for a portion of the upgrade costs and has completed an environmental assessment as part of this process.
The new licences for our treatment plants require that we take immediate steps to reduce nutrient and bacteria levels in the final effluent. The licences specify compliance levels for these items and the time frame for meeting them. To meet the new levels, the three wastewater plants require significant upgrades in treatment processes.
The City has a ten year capital budget program for upgrading the treatment plants and will pay for most of the costs through revenues from sewer and water bills. There is an opportunity for the City to receive funding through the federal Canadian Strategic Infrastructure Fund (CSIF) , along with provincial support , to help pay for part of the costs of the improvements to the wastewater plants.
As part of the CSIF application, the components of the wastewater improvement project eligible for funding require an environmental assessment report be done under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The purpose of the assessment is to determine the potential environmental effects and actions required to reduce them.
The City hired TetrES Consultants Inc. to do the environmental assessment. It is completed and has been submitted to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) for review by its environmental specialists and by the public. The Agency will accept the environmental assessment if they are satisfied it addresses any potential impacts. They may also issue conditions and, if warranted, direct funding to the projects.
Since Manitoba Conservation has already issued Environment Act licences for our wastewater treatment plants, there is no additional formal provincial approval process required for the upgrade of the three wastewater treatment plants.
The City of Winnipeg has had a pollution control program for wastewater in place since the 1930s. Since that time, we have built new treatment plants and upgraded existing plants to meet the demands of a growing population and changing environmental standards. The following are highlights of the changes we have made to improve our pollution control program:
Until 1988, the Manitoba The Clean Environment Act gave the City the responsibility for protecting water quality in the Red and Assiniboine rivers in the Winnipeg area. This meant we had the authority to control effluent discharges within the City and in an additional zone downstream of the City. Regulations within The Act required that the City monitor treated wastewater discharges (effluent) and report results to the Province of Manitoba. The Act did not require effluent discharge licences for wastewater treatment plants. The plants were operated to satisfy environmental protection guidelines set out by the Province.
The Province repealed The Clean Environment Act and introduced The Environment Act on March 31, 1988. The new act specified that all facilities in the province with effluent discharges with the potential to create environmental impacts must be licensed to operate.
In February of 1990, the City submitted licensing proposals for the three wastewater treatment plants to Manitoba's Minister of Environment in accordance with new Act. The Province indicated that final licences for the plants would be issued after a public hearing process to consider broader surface water-quality objectives. The hearings would include water quality in the Red and Assiniboine rivers within and downstream of the City of Winnipeg.
In 1992, the Clean Environment Commission (CEC) was requested to hold a public environmental review in two stages:
The CEC held public hearings on the first stage of the environmental review from November 1991 until January 1992. The Commission made 14 recommendations in its June 1992 report (pdf - 2,995kb) to the Minister of Environment, which were accepted by the Province in November 1993.
Two recommendations in the report required the City to conduct site-specific studies for combined sewer overflows (CSO) and for un-ionized ammonia. These studies were to be completed by July 1997 and then considered in the second stage of the environmental review. For a number of reasons, final reports for both the CSO and the ammonia study were not completed until November 2002. The reasons included:
In 2001, the City, Manitoba Conservation and Manitoba Health began working together to develop licences for the three wastewater treatment plants. The process involved review of the CSO and ammonia studies and other surface water quality issues related to the overall pollution control program. The process focused on developing proposed control programs, which would become the basis for plant licences.
Five workshops were held between December 2001 and April 2002. Through the workshop process we identified seven priorities for action based on environmental and health protection factors. The action items, in order of priority, were:
The City developed proposed implementation plans, which included estimated costs, timelines for responding to the priorities and the water and wastewater utility's financial capacity.
In January of 2003, the Clean Environment Commission held public hearings in response to a major discharge of untreated sewage that occurred in the fall of 2002 at the North End Water Pollution Control Centre. The hearings were held in Winnipeg from January 20-22, 2003, in Selkirk from January 27-28, 2003, and reconvened in Winnipeg from April 14-16, 2003. The City outlined a 50-year pollution-prevention plan to the CEC, which included the components of the CSIF project, to address the seven priorities. The CEC issued a report (pdf - 738kb) to the Minister of Conservation in August 2003. The twenty recommendations, which were accepted by the Minister, called for more rapid implementation of nutrient reduction and combined sewer control. Specifically, recommendations number six and ten stated:
#6 – The City of Winnipeg should be directed to plan for the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from its municipal wastewaters, and to take immediate steps in support of the nutrient reduction targets established for Lake Winnipeg. The City's nutrient removal plan should be a key element of a licence review hearing to be scheduled within two years; and
#10 – The City of Winnipeg should be directed to proceed with disinfection of wastewaters at the North End Water Pollution Control Centre without delay, and should routinely test for pathogens in all wastewater discharges.
The City has amended its long-term pollution prevention plan in consultation with the Province, including adjusting the timeline for the components included in this project.
The history of the regulatory environment for the wastewater collection and treatment system since 1977 is:
Manitoba Environment has issued licences, under The Environment Act for our three wastewater treatment plants. Effluent quality requirement limits for controlled wastewater parameters are shown in the following table:
1 30-day rolling average 2 30-day rolling geometric mean 3 Total phosphorus load not to exceed 119 kilograms per day as determined by the 30-day rolling average 4 Total nitrogen load removed is less than 838 kilograms per day as determined by the 30-day rolling average
We are upgrading our wastewater treatment plants to comply with the terms and conditions specified in the Environment Act licences.
In the short term, the upgrades will improve effluent quality to meet the interim City-wide reduction targets of 10% for phosphorus and 13% for nitrogen. The effluent disinfection, nutrient and ammonia control meets Provincial "pre-1970" water quality objectives for the Red River, Assiniboine River and Lake Winnipeg.
Based on long term growth projections, the upgrades to our treatment plants and processes will increase the capacity of the wastewater system to handle additional waste flows from a growing population and industrial sector until at least the year 2031.
As the upgrades to the wastewater plants begin, people who live near or travel past one of the plants may notice construction activity. The impacts of construction can include increased traffic to and from the site, heavy equipment moving about, noise and dust. We will manage these activities to prevent or minimize their impact on community activities, local residents, businesses and the environment.
Our practice for construction projects is to specify conditions for work-site management in the contract. Conditions would include traffic control plans, protocols for heavy equipment on-site, safety, hours of work and emergency plans to deal with environmental incidents and accidents. In addition, we may also require inspections, monitoring, activity and traffic scheduling, surface runoff control, dust control, refuelling practices, protocols to prevent leaks or spills and drip trays for equipment.
We will continue to provide wastewater services, including plant operations, at all times during construction.
Nutrient control - biological nutrient removal
Ultraviolet disinfection - year round
Nutrient control - biological nutrient removal
Inflow and infiltration control plan
Expansion - wet weather flow
Ultraviolet disinfection - year round
Centrate treatment - nitrogen and phosphorus reduction
Nutrient control - biological nutrient removal
Ultraviolet disinfection - year round (not eligible for CSIF)
Wet weather flow treatment - combined sewer overflow program
Combined sewer overflow control program - storage, transport to water pollution control centres - primary treatment and disinfection
Range of options to meet future criteria
The City of Winnipeg has put in place a plan to upgrade wastewater treatment to improve effluent disinfection and reduce nutrients to meet the levels specified in the Environment Act licences. The licences set our treatment levels to protect public health and the freshwater environments of the local rivers and Lake Winnipeg.
The City of Winnipeg currently contributes 4.2% of the total nitrogen load and 6.6% of the total phosphorus load to Lake Winnipeg. As the tables below show, after the overall City nutrient-reduction program reduction is complete:
Detailed information on the benefits of upgrades for each of our three treatment plants is also available:
1 Lake Winnipeg loads from Manitoba Water Stewardship Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Report - Decemeber 2006 2 Updated data based on detailled monitoring done by the City of Winnipeg 3 Includes urban wet weather sources.
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Winnipeg is located in Treaty One Territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Ininew (Cree), and Dakota peoples, and in the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. Our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, in Treaty Three Territory.