Southside residents living in the vicinity of the City of Revelstoke sewage treatment facility will be pleased to hear city staff are following through with plans to reduce the summer stink.
As reported in the Times Review, smell issues at the treatment facility came to a head late this summer when residents organized a protest at the city public works yard.
City staff investigated the problem, and new testing seemed to indicate the odour was emanating from the sewer head works, not the sewage lagoons as previously thought.
In other words, the smell that wells up in the summer seems to be coming mostly from the underground sewer system.
The City of Revelstoke has budgeted $200,000 in 2014 to find a solution to the issue. The budget is still in a preliminary phase.
Also, the city has issued a request for expressions of interest on BC Bid, seeking proposals from engineering companies interested in designing systems to help mitigate the smell.
City of Revelstoke Development Services director Mike Thomas said he is hopeful that request for solutions will result in worthy proposals.
He said the city will be factoring in life-cycle costs when making a decision on which systems to use.
Thomas said one challenge is many available solutions rely on proprietary technologies that have high long-term maintenance costs.
For example, one system might be inexpensive to install, but you’re stuck buying the suppliers brand of filters for the rest of the system’s life.
Given residents’ vocal complaints about the smell, steps to improve the situation may be a pre-requisite for another capital project in the budget; the city plans to put aside $1.2 million in 2017 for a sewage treatment plant expansion.