Waste Water Treatment
The Penticton Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) strives to protect public health and the environment by treating wastewater from residences, schools, hospitals, businesses, and industries. The staff at the AWWTP also operate and maintain 10 wastewater pump stations located throughout Penticton. The Public Works department maintains the gravity collection system within Penticton.
The AWWTP has been located at its current site 459 Waterloo Ave since 1960 and has been expanded and upgraded a number of times. The plant currently serves a population of approximately 33,000 and on average treats 13,000,000 L/day of wastewater.
The AWWTP is in the process of undergoing a major upgrade. Construction started in late 2009 and will increase plant capacity, replace equipment that has passed its life cycle and employ a number of environmentally friendly processes. The value of the upgrade including engineering was approximately $24,000,000. The plant upgrade increased plant daily flow capacity from 18,000,000 L/day to 27,000,000 L/day, a 50% increase.
The environmentally friendly plant upgrades include:
- Electricity
generation using micro turbines powered by waste biogas;
- Plant and process
heating using wastewater and biogas;
- Elimination of chlorine and replacement
with ultra violet for disinfection;
- Improved solids handling that reduce GHG
emission from transport to the landfill and;
- An extension of treated effluent lines to service the south end of the City and parks and schools in between.
Wastewater undergoes primary, secondary and tertiary treatment at the City of Penticton's AWWTP. Treatment processes include fine screening, primary clarification, biological nutrient removal (BNR), secondary clarification, filtration and ultraviolet disinfection prior to discharging into the sensitive and high use recreational receiving waters of the Okanagan River which feeds Skaha Lake. In addition, from April to October, a more environmentally friendly practice of reclaiming the treated wastewater and using it to irrigate local City parks, schools fields and the Penticton Golf & Country Club takes place.
The bio solids that result from treatment plant process are fermented, digested, thickened and dewatered; they are then trucked to Campbell Mountain Landfill where the bio solids are composted into Class A compost by the Works Department who operates and maintains the compost facility.
Annual Report
For more information, you can also view the Wastewater Treatment Plant Annual Report.
