An open house and wetland tour is being hosted by the City of Prince George this week.
The City is doing this to mark the BC Water and Waste Association‘s Water Week.
City Environmental Assistant Andrea Byrne says Water Week is to highlight the people who are in this line of work.
“There are a lot of people behind the scenes that work hard to not only bring clean water to our houses but also to treat it once it leaves your house before it goes back into the environment,” she says before moving on to the focus point of this year’s edition: lagoons.
“Lagoons are important as they are a natural method of treating wastewater, meaning they are non-mechanical and non-chemical. This also means they require much less maintenance and cost much less to operate than a wastewater treatment facility. However, lagoons require much more space than modern treatment facilities, which isn’t always available in an urban environment given the significant volumes of wastewater created by a city.”
There are five lagoons owned and operated by the City:
- Western Acres Lagoon – 9255-8385 Muralt Road
- Danson Lagoon – Danson Industrial Park, corner of Boundary Rd and Willow Cale Rd
- BCR Lagoon – BCR Industrial Park, north end of Willow Cale Rd.
- Blackburn Lagoons – Foreman Rd.
- Shelley Lagoon – Shelley Rd. by the FFGRD Transfer Station
The City of Prince George is hosting an open house and wetland tour on May 10 to mark the BC Water and Waste Association’s Water Week (May 6 to 12) and to provide information on the City’s sanitary lagoons and the wetland system at Western Acres. Info: https://t.co/KJMEn2QrHi pic.twitter.com/EaxKmBPZgT
— Prince George, BC (@CityofPG) May 8, 2018
An issue the open house and tour will address is what people flush down their toilets. You may think it does not matter, but Wastewater Treatment Foreman Tyler Olsen says it does.
“A lot of people think you can just flush it and it’s gone and unfortunately that is not the case, there is a lot of infrastructure, manpower that goes behind treating your wastewater,” he explains.
“Hair is something that comes out, plastic is something that always comes out, those flushable wipes don’t break down like they say.”
City staff will be at the Western Acres Wetlands on Thursday, May 10th, from 1PM to 3PM.
It is at the 8000 block of Muralt Road, which can be accessed off Blackwater Road.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
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