Beausejour Mayor Brad Saluk said the
province’s lagoon discharge distance
error has caused the town hardship.
Discharge route error discovered
Beausejour hopes lagoon
restrictions
eased after
provincial mistake realized
By Mark T. Buss
The discovery of a provincial error regarding Beausejour’s sewage lagoon discharge route has council hoping provincial regulations on the lagoon’s discharge frequency will be loosened this fall.
Beausejour has submitted a minor alteration request to Manitoba Conservation regarding the environmental licence on their sewage lagoon by asking for an increase in discharge days over the summer from May 15 to Oct. 31.
The request comes after a 20-plus year discrepancy in the distance the treated effluent travels from the lagoon to the Brokenhead River was recently discovered.
In the past, the province believed the discharge route from the lagoon was a mere two kilometres from the cells north of Beausejour as it travelled east along Highway 44 directly to the Brokenhead River.
Because of the short proximity, the province had very strict and unrealistic guidelines on when Beausejour could release the treated water, according to Beausejour Mayor Brad Saluk.
“It’s been very frustrating because we’ve continued to ask for an early discharge but they wouldn’t let us because they thought the effluent was only travelling a mile to the river,” Saluk said, adding phosphorus levels and other elements dissipate and evaporate the longer the route is.
Last spring, the Town of Beausejour began to investigate the possibility of an early discharge of their six-cell lagoon system as the subsequent removal of excess groundwater leeching in from the town’s sewer system would lessen the annual concern of flooded basements in the southeast corner of town.
The engineer’s recommendation was to take the proper steps to discharge treated water or go through the expense of bringing in trucks to help drain the lagoon down to a manageable level.
“It was either start dumping or have it come over the bank,” Saluk said at the time. “All the tests have been taken, we’ve met the requirements and samples are being taken daily to make sure we meet the provincial standards.”
What engineers eventually discovered was the province was mistaken in the lagoon’s real discharge route for over two decades.
In reality, when effluent leaves the lagoon, it heads north of Beausejour to Mile Road 78N before turning east to the Brokenhead – a distance of almost 20 kilometres and well downstream from where the initial access to the Brokenhead was believed to occur.
Saluk said the provincial error created hardship for the town as the province allowed 47 days for discharge while the entire process took 59 days to create adequate lagoon storage for the winter, which heightened flooding concerns.
“We don’t know why individuals didn’t take a closer look at this but we hope we can get it rectified this year,” Saluk said.
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