MISLEAD OVER SEWAGE

By Scott Neufeld http://www.dailycourier.ca/
As opposition to the City of Vernon’s request for a new permit for the waste water treatment plant grows, so too does the misinformation according to the city’s environmental services manager. Dale Danallanko said that by seeking changes to the operational certificate for the plant they are not asking for permission to send more waste water into Okanagan Lake. He added that the city is also not planning on phasing out or reducing water disposal through spray irrigation. “The city policy won’t change,” he said. “There has been an awful lot of misinformation.” Danallanko said that people have been misled that the city wants to dump raw sewage into the lake. He said that is simply not true. “The City of Vernon never has and never will discharge sewage into Okanagan Lake,” he said. “What the city has done once is discharge tertiary treated water.” Under provincial environmental regulations tertiary treatment plants, such as the one completed in Vernon last year, are permitted to dump waste water into Okanagan Lake. While Kelowna, Penticton, Summerland and Westbank dump their effluent into the lake, Danallanko says Vernon will do so only in emergencies. “Vernon holds itself to a higher standard,” he said. Only once in the last 20 years has Vernon discharged waste water into the lake and that occurred when the water at McKay Reservoir rose too high. Gyula Kiss of the Taxpayers’ Association said he believes the city is applying to the province to dump waste water more frequently. He said the city is planning to phase out its spray irrigation program to dump more waste water in the lake. “I always get suspicious when they say they aren’t going to change anything, but . . . they just want to go and do it when they bloody well feel like it,” he said. Even though other cities spill their waste into the lake Kiss said that the city should terminate its request for a new operating permit. He said the current permit should be adequate. “The more crap you put into the lake the more pollution you create,” he said. “They should just desist from doing all this stuff and creating more upset people for the City of Vernon.” Assistant regional manager Mike Reiner is reviewing the city’s application for a new operational permit. He said the new certificate is needed because the old certificate refers to a facility that has been demolished. Reiner said in reviewing, the ministry will ensure that the city maintains its policy of only using the outfall pipe in emergencies. However, Reiner said Vernon’s waste water meets the same standards as Kelowna and other cities who discharge into the lake. “It’s very highly treated and reclaimed water that meets all of the standards of other municipalities for discharge to the lake,” he said. “From the information provided to me by the city it’s clear they intend to continue to use spray irrigation.”