By Andru McCracken
The Village of McBride has said no to a new sewage disposal deal that would increase the amount of sewage being hauled to McBride’s lagoon from 10,000 litres per day to 180,000 litres per day… for now.
The Village has a contract to take up to 10,000 litres or raw sewage per day from the Summit Camp near Vanderhoof, but the smell of the sewage disposal has impacted residents.
The dump location has been moved away from houses to the frontage road, but Mayor Gene Runtz said the smell can still affect the frontage area.
He said that sewer gasses, heavier than air, are displaced from the sewer system and cause havoc with area residents’ air quality.
The Summit Camp has changed from a 60-person camp to a 1000-person camp and they are looking for a place to handle their waste… up to 180m3 per day starting on June 7th until December 2021.
Radloff Engineering, who designed the village’s lagoon system, said the system can handle it, but council wondered if residents could.
Ultimately council chose to spend $5000 to $10,000 on an upgrade that aims to keep sewer gases from flooding that area where it is being dumped. Runtz committed to testing it to ensure it works.
“It’s an engineered plan to seal it,” said Runtz said of Radloff Engineering’s plan to weld a fitting to a manhole cover with a few charcoal filters thrown in for good measure.
Runtz said that the village still has a contract with a camp for 10,000 litres per day, but they are able to cancel it with some notice if the sewage can’t be transferred without causing harm to neighbours.
“We have the capacity, we know that for sure, we can bring in a lot of revenue we need, but not at the expense of residents. Nobody should have to smell what I was smelling. It was terrible, just terrible,” he said.
Runtz said if the tests are successful the smells would be limited to the lagoon area.
Councillor Allan Frederick proposed the motion to spend the money to upgrade the infrastructure at a manhole on the south east frontage and test it and council passed it unanimously.
