City of Regina awarded for efforts in wastewater management

WATCH: The City of Regina has earned an award for their work in wastewater management, spanning over a decade long. Angela Stewart explains.

Recognition is being given to the City of Regina through a new award for their efforts in wastewater management in the city.

Calling Lakes Ecomuseum presented the award to the city to celebrate the milestone sparked by a pivotal moment over a decade ago.

“Twenty-eight public beaches in the Qu’Appelle Valley had to be closed for a week because of high E. coli,” Aura Lee MacPherson, the Chair of Calling Lakes Ecomusuem, explained.

It happened after a heavy rainfall event on Canada Day, which prompted the city to release partially untreated sewage into Wascana Creek.

The city acted swiftly in their response, work that has sustained over the last decade.

“We went through a major upgrade of our wastewater treatment plant back in around 2015, 2016 timeframe. Back then, we invested over $175 million in that treatment plant,” Kurtis Doney, the Deputy City Manger of City Operations said.

“We continue to invest in our wastewater collection system now and our storm water system,” he added.

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Some creeks have improved with other downstream recovering slower, according to some experts.

“We’ve seen a real improvement in the water quality in the Wascana Creek so that it is actually habitable for fish. It’s good for amphibians. It doesn’t have excessive growth of toxic algae. All of that stuff you want out of your water bodies,” said Peter Leavitt, a research professor at the University of Regina.

Leavitt said there is still work that could be done to improve the water even further.

“You have cottaging all around the lake, which have some fairly old septic fields that probably need to be looked at, and then you have climate change. As it gets warmer, the conditions that favour some species we don’t want, like toxic algae, become more and more common,” he explained.

More than 25 billion litres of wastewater is treated at Regina’s Wastewater Treatment Plant each year. The plant is owned by EPCOR. Once treated, it’s then put safely back into Wascana Creek.

The city said upgrades at the plant will likely happen in the future, making that investment another step towards maintaining good water throughout lakes and streams.