The District of Sechelt is considering how best to use reclaimed water from its new wastewater treatment plant, and about 40 residents came out to give their input during an Oct. 27 town hall meeting on the issue.
Residents heard that the new treatment plant between Surf Circle and Ebbtide, dubbed the Sechelt Water Resource Centre, creates enough reusable water at the end of the treatment process to supply “300-odd cubic metres a day” for irrigation purposes in Sechelt, according to water resource centre project coordinator Paul Nash.
Troy Vassos, an environmental consultant and expert in wastewater technology, said the water at the end of the treatment process in Sechelt meets “the most stringent water quality standard in the world,” and that using it for irrigation purposes “makes so much sense.”
While the water is highly filtered through the treatment process, which takes out even the majority of pharmaceuticals, some drugs remain, such as carbamazepine, an anti-epileptic drug.
“It’s interesting that one makes it straight through even through our membranes and coagulation and everything,” Nash said, noting the government of Canada is currently working to “set the standard for carbamazepine in aquatic waters.”
Sechelt’s reclaimed water would be suitable for use on food crops, Vassos said, with some restrictions.
“The B.C. regulations allow vegetative crops to be used, remembering that health, though, has a say. I don’t think that the B.C. Ministry of Health would be very comfortable with using say root crops or where the water would come in direct contact, like berries, that type of thing,” Vassos said.
“Typically in communities where they allow that to happen, though, is they use it as drip irrigation done right at the root zone, for instance.”
Nash pitched some potential uses of the water to irrigate grounds at the Blue Ocean Golf Club, to supplement water needs at Lehigh, and for landscaping in District of Sechelt and Sechelt Indian Band parks.
He also said there could be some commercial uses of the water in car washes, for example, or residential uses in the future.
While it was stressed that no decisions for use of the water had been made yet, Nash noted there were already two unused pipes in the ground that could transport the water to downtown Sechelt for use in parks and up Dusty Road, close to Lehigh.
He also said putting in a pipe up to the golf course would cost about $1.8 million and that an application for funding for the endeavour has already been submitted to the federal gas tax fund. If approved, that would be a one-third grant that would require the District of Sechelt and the golf course to foot the other two-thirds.
Residents at the meeting were asked for their ideas on ways to reuse the water and were encouraged to submit their remarks to the District of Sechelt to help inform a new water conservation plan that looks at all of Sechelt’s water resources.
Comments are still being accepted at info@sechelt.ca
