City of Prince Rupert Liquid Waste Management Plan Stage 2

Prince Rupert, situated on British Columbia's north coast, had a century-old wastewater system that discharged raw sewage and wastewater directly into the harbour. This posed public health and safety problems, and adversely affected aquatic habitat. To address these issues, Prince Rupert completed Stage Two of its Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP). Stage One, funded by GMF, had defined options for upgrading the system and was completed in January 2009. Stage Two aimed to further evaluate and cost the identified options using a triple-bottom-line approach, as well as life-cycle and cost analyses. The goal was to effectively manage liquid waste over 20- and 40-year horizons. The major tasks of Stage Two involved using Stage One population estimates to determine system volumes, facility type, the treatment needed, locations for the facility and discharge areas, and implementation costs. Emerging trends in wastewater management — such as a combination of decentralized and centralized treatment and small-footprint technologies — were to be considered, as was a strategy for long-term management of combined sewer overflows (six of 10 sewage areas). Solids processing and biosolids management were considered in parallel with liquid waste management. As an additional benefit, Stage Two of the LWMP aimed to increase local awareness of the impacts of ocean disposal. The new technologies and wastewater options that were evaluated could be replicated by other municipalities looking to expand or upgrade their wastewater treatment plants. The solutions recommended by this study were expected to allow Prince Rupert to improve its effluent quality including its biological oxygen demand and total suspended solids rates, by 85 per cent.