What’s That Smell?

We have had a few readers reach out to us concerned about a bad smell in the air. While unpleasant, there is no cause for concern as it is just the Town’s lagoon. But in an effort to answer some of your questions, the Town of Kindersley has provided these answers regarding the smell.

1. Why does the lagoon smell so bad?
   • An aerated lagoon, regardless of what community it may be located in, will have odors from time to time. The lagoon is an open body of wastewater and though we aerating the water, many things contribute to odors:
     • Spring thaw when the ice begins breaking up
     • Changing effluent levels in any of the cells – for example, lowering the level – the banks are wet and an odor comes off the sides
     • Change in wind directions
   • We currently experienced spring thaw and changes were made in the treatment cells. Regulations are to keep the freeboard at 1 metre from the top of the berm. This would cause wet banks in some areas and the wind hitting these wet areas causes more odor.
     
2. If it smells, was the upgrade even successful?
   • YES! The lagoon upgrade was completed successfully. The reason for the upgrade was for capacity reasons and to increase treatment quality.
   • The project included design and construction of the following:
     • Construction of two new aerated cells at the front end of the treatment process
     • Installation of aeration header/laterals in the two new cells
     • Construction of a second blower building for the expanded aeration system
     • Replacement of the effluent pumping station
     • Upgrades to the existing facultative aerated cells which consist of raising the perimeter berms by 0.9m and desludging the existing lagoon cells
     • Replacement of 1800 metres of force main from the existing Rosedale Sewage Pumping Station to the lagoon
     • Replacement of gravity sewer trunk main to lagoon (Railway Avenue to the lagoon)
   • Engineering and planning for this upgrade began in 2014, we completed our Infrastructure Capacity Assessment. Different options were considered and a Downstream Impact Assessment was also completed in 2015. Following this, our engineering firm completed a Pre-Design analysis in 2017 and a final project design in 2018. The design was required for a capacity of a population of 10,000 people and to meet effluent limits and requirements that are legislated. The design was completed.
   • One option that was explored was an indoor wastewater treatment facility. One of the biggest hurdles for this type of project is not only capital dollars (Mechanical Treatment Plant in 2014 would cost about 20 million dollars), but that Kindersley would have a difficult time finding the personnel to treat our water (drinking water) and at that time, the operational cost and being able to find workers, was far out of reach.
   • The upgrades that were completed surpass the WSA requirements and we also obtained the required capacity that Kindersley needed as we were over capacity and were directed that this upgrade had to happen.
     
3. Is anyone monitoring or testing at the lagoon?
   • YES! The upgrade was closely permitted and monitored by WSA and resulted in our wastewater effluent meeting the Provincial regulations in Saskatchewan for wastewater discharge, as well as meeting the WSER regulations Nationally.
   • We are continually inspected by our regulating bodies.

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