Expansion a priority as Lethbridge wastewater treatment plant nears capacity

The City of Lethbridge's wastewater treatment plant is seen in this photo taken on June 4, 2024. (Karsen Marczuk/CTV News)

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. — The City of Lethbridge’s wastewater treatment plant is nearly at capacity as close to 30 million litres of water is treated every day.

Doug Kaupp, general manager of water and wastewater with the City of Lethbridge, said the growth of the city, especially in the industrial sector, is leading to the plant reaching capacity at times.

“The wastewater treatment plant is operating close to and some days past its designed capacity and so there is a need for expansion,” Kaupp said.

“We have plans to expand to 40 million litres a day and higher strength wastewater and that's going to (be) tens of millions of dollars.”

Kaupp says the process is all natural and the water is cleaned to regulation before being released into the Oldman River.

Upstream, the water treatment plant brings in and cleans 60 million litres of water per day that’s used across the city.

Kaupp is also looking at getting that plant expanded to increase capacity and the flow rate there.

While water levels in the Oldman River reservoirs have increased to 76 per cent, Kaupp says low levels won’t impact the operation but could affect the outcome of the water that’s released into the river.

“The treated wastewater that gets discharged into the river, we are reliant on some dilutions in the environment for it to have the minimal impact it does,” Kaupp said.

“If it’s low enough then our impact on the environment increases and it’s harder on the fish if the river was half or a third of the flow that we expect.”

Staff are onsite 24/7 to monitor the treatment process, with one item continuing to cause problems.

“One of the things the wastewater industry as a whole is frustrated with is our wipes with the word ‘flushable’ on the container,” he said.

“The wipes may be flushable enough to make it down the toilet, but they don’t break down and they get hung up in the collection pipe network.”

Lethbridge provides water for Coaldale, Coalhurst, Picture Butte, Monarch, Diamond City, Shaughnessy and Turin.