Bradford residents can rest easily knowing the quality of the town’s sanitary sewer system isn't going down the drain.
Council received an annual update and summary of activities for wastewater collection and the town’s water pollution control plant during its regular meeting on March 19.
Based on a report from Samantha MacKenzie, manager of compliance, 2023 was a year of “high performance” for the system, which had no bypass or overflow events, no odour complaints and met or surpassed all legislative requirements based on all required samples taken.
“BWG’s commitment to operating within a culture of continuous improvement, while maintaining environmental responsibility, remains a top priority within wastewater operations,” MacKenzie said in the report.
Mayor James Leduc called the findings a “glowing report,” and Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu appreciated seeing the system “pass with flying colours.”
However, there were two wastewater spills in 2023, involving two cubic metres of sewage near a driveway on Jan. 30, and another involving 13.3 cubic metres of sewage at the plant at 225 Dissette St. on Aug. 15.
In both cases the spilled material was contained to the site and removed by town staff using a hose and vacuum truck, according to the report.
Sandhu appreciated that those spills were dealt with “in record time,” as the first spill was reportedly cleaned up within two hours and 15 minutes of the town being notified and the second within one hour and four minutes.
“By having the proper equipment on hand and the staff that are trained, we can respond pretty quick,” Tony Desroches, manager of wastewater said.
The town’s wastewater system is rated for a capacity of 19,400 cubic metres per day, and in 2023, served a population of about 35,430 people by processing 4.6 million cubic metres of influent (wastewater into the plant) and nearly 4.1 cubic metres of effluent (treated wastewater discharged into the West Holland River).
That effluent was within all the environmental compliance approval limits of the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks, including for total phosphorus levels which were .06 milligrams per litre compared to the limit of .098 mg/L, according to the report.
Some solid waste removed from the influent is recycled as fertilizer for farm fields, and in 2023 Bradford’s plant produced 27,164 cubic metres of “biosolids” or “sludge” that met the requirements of the Nutrient Management Act and were applied to agricultural lands between April and November.
In 2024, the volume of sludge produced is expected to increase to about 32,000 cubic metres.
The system consists of 128.6 kilometres of gravity-fed sewer lines, 36.93 km of pressurized lines, nine pumping stations and 2,050 manholes.
Among other efforts, maintenance on the system in 2023 included, inspecting 3,303 metres of sewer lines, locating and mapping 341 property lines, flushing 763 lines in the south half of town, activating the Bond Head pumping station in July and installing new carbon media at the Green Valley pumping station to help control odours.
The sanitary sewer system is separate from the stormwater system.
