Sewage-treatment bugs not expected to fully recover for two weeks

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This article was published 07/11/2011 (5085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – Waste-water engineers have been able to boost the mass of beneficial bugs in the South End Water Pollution Control Centre’s ailing bioreactors, but it will be at least another two weeks before the sewage-treatment plant is functioning properly.

Since Oct. 7, the South St. Vital plant has been discharging 50 million to 60 million litres of half-treated sewage into the Red River every day due to a mysterious die-off of bacteria and other micro-organisms that normally digest organic waste in the facility’s aeration tanks.

On Friday night, engineers added chlorine to the bioreactors in an attempt to kill off string-like filamentous bacteria that have proliferated in the tank, where they’ve hampered the settling of organic waste particles, engineering manager Mike Shkolny said Monday afternoon

The chlorine was added in low doses in an effort to spare the beneficial bacteria in the tanks.

Engineers are also hauling 300,000 litres of beneficial bugs from the North End Water Pollution Control Centre toi the South End plant every day, Shkolny said.

This has doubled the mass of healthy micro-organisms in the South End plant’s bioreactors, he said. But he predicted it will be two to four weeks before the plant is running properly.

Engineers have also retrofitted the ailing plant to allow the addition of two chemicals – a polymer and an iron salt – in order to improve the settling of organic-waste particles.

The plant continues to discharge effluent that exceeds permitted levels of fecal coliform bacteria, suspended solids and materials that can deplete oxygen in the Red River.

But the overall effect on water quality remains slight, based on river samples in late October, Shkolny said.

The city and Manitoba Conservation are still analyzing samples taken in early November.