Fernie’s wastewater treatment system assessment will be extended after the city found more work needs to be done.
The assessment was first started in 2022 to bring the city’s water infrastructure back into compliance with provincial regulations.
In November of 2023, the city mainly focused on data collection in the Elk River.
Since then crews have completed river and lagoon field sampling and an environmental impact study report.
A reclaimed water use feasibility study and inflow and infiltration report are still being completed.
The Ministry of Environment informed the city that a gravel bar near the outfall does not meet their requirements and needs either relocation or significant instream work.
Acting engineering manager Andrew Baird says that has added to the work needed to finish the assessment.
“Determining the ideal outfall location and with that, we will be doing tandem river modelling to determine what the river limits would be based on the new mixing of this revised location,” he said.
“With that, we would be able to determine if we need additional treatment processes, what they would be and begin design on those.”
Because of the additional work, city staff said the project will need to be extended to November 2025.
The city has requested an extension from the Ministry of Environment and is waiting for a response.
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