Water Reclamation Plant Meeting Demand

Written by Peter McIntyre  107.5 KISSFM  Thursday, 17 May 2012 18:00

Andrew Marr, manager of Vernon's Water Reclamation Centre

Residents may refer to it as the sewer plant, but manager Andrew Marr likes to think of it as Vernon's state of the art, high-tech, water reclamation centre. Marr gave media a tour of the 30 million dollar facility on 43rd Street, and the public can take a tour May 23rd. The manager says the facility converts 12 thousand cubic meters of sewage daily, into reclaimed water that's sprayed on local golf courses,  fields and seed orchards. "They're all using reclaimed water There's also people employed there, so this goes a long way, not only from the city being sustainable but that reclaimed water also provides jobs in the community. The people that instituted this, they were visionaries." Marr would like to see the program extended to other areas including orchards, but says first people's perception of reclaimed water has to change. "Reclaimed water has always had a bit of a stigma, you know, reclaimed water on vegetables, a lot of people have a problem with that, but you look at most countries in the world, like California, or any of the citrus growing areas where its inherently dry, guess what? They use reclaimed water." The process used is called biological nutrient removal. Meantime, the reclamation centre is expected to meet the area's sewage processing needs for years to come. It currently serves about 37-thousand homes in the city, Coldstream and parts of the outlying areas. Marr says he hasn't seen the expected growth since the plant opened in 2004. "I should have around 20,000 cubic meters a day coming through the plant, and I'm still sitting at around 11,500 to 12,000, so we've still got room to expand, and that great for ratepayers." Marr says one reason is that people being more water conscious, using less, and creating less waste water. He says they no longer have odour issues like the old plant regularly had. Marr says peak flow at the facility see 270 litres a second between 10 and noon, a result of morning activities as it takes about 4 hours to get from homes to the plant on 43rd Street.
Low flow is 60 litres a second around 4 am.