ESTEVAN — The murky future for SaskPower’s Shand Power Station is creating a potential challenge for the City of Estevan and its wastewater treatment plant.
SaskPower currently takes all of the wastewater treatment plant’s effluent as boiler feed water after going through the wetlands. Through this agreement, the city doesn’t release any wastewater into the environment.
Open houses were held at the Estevan Techhub on Monday and Tuesday evenings to discuss the issue. The city provided information to those in attendance and answered questions so that people could see the risks and the benefits of the six options being explored, as well as the projected capital and operating costs.
In a letter to council for the Feb. 27 meeting, Shane Bucsis, the manager of the water and wastewater treatment plants, said he started the process of planning to release into the environment.
“The requirements of what we can release to Shand to use as boiler feed, and what we can release to the Souris River, is drastically different,” said Bucsis.
If Shand were to shut down, the city wants to be ready and to have a process in place to release into the Souris and meet the more stringent standards.
“Releasing into Shand, because it goes through their wetlands, the only things that we’re regulated on is a very high level of BOD [biochemical oxygen demand] and then total suspended solids … and those numbers we’re able to hit consistently and are very easy to hit consistently with any wastewater operation,” said Bucsis.
“If we release into the Souris, it is a very slow-moving body of water, so then we start having a look at ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, carbon, oxygen demand, a tighter BOD demand, pH and the list goes on.”
As long as Shand is operating, the power plant has to take all of the city’s water effluent from the wastewater treatment plant. The agreement has been in place since the plant opened in 1996.
If Shand were to be converted to natural gas, which has been speculated, then Bucsis said it’s his understanding that it wouldn’t require as much boiler feed water, so it wouldn’t take all of the effluent.
“A lot of people don’t know that all of our wastewater is sent to Shand, and if Shand does shut down, what that means for the city of having a release into the environment.”
The first step for this process was a downstream study completed in June 2021. It found the only place the city could release effluent into the environment is the Souris River.
Magna Engineering was contracted to do a feasibility study of a potential replacement or major upgrades for the wastewater treatment plant. The city was awarded a grant by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to cover half the costs, Bucsis said. As part of the grant, the feasibility study would look at issues with green solution considerations.
The report outlines six different options:
•A parallel expansion of existing wastewater treatment plant process, which has an estimated cost of nearly $11.91 million to more than $16.67 million, and annual operating and maintenance costs of more than $1 million.
•An inline expansion of the existing process, which would cost anywhere from $11.88 million to $16.63 million and have an annual cost of $942,393. Bucsis said the first two would allow the city to retain its current system, but operating and maintenance costs are higher, and the city would not be able to hit release targets.
•Activated sludge with gravity clarification, which would not meet the proposed release parameters by the Water Security Agency. Projected cost is $17.18 million to $24.05 million, and the annual operating cost is pegged at $974,395. It would also not meet permit requirements.
•A membrane bioreactor is a proven technology that would meet the requirements but is the most expensive to build and maintain. Projected cost is anywhere from $32.59 million to $45 million, with an operating cost of $991,137. Bucsis said if the city had to build a new plant tomorrow, it would allow the city to meet requirements.
•A subsurface flow wetland full treatment is a newer technology in Saskatchewan and not yet recognized as an approved treatment method in this province. The cost is $28.3 million to $35 million, with operating and maintenance costs of $388,000, which would be the lowest, but it’s the second-most expensive for capital costs.
•A ubsurface flow treatment wetland polishing, which has a cost of $12.2 million to $17 million, and operating and maintenance costs of $548,000, is the city’s preferred option. But it’s also not yet recognized as an approved treatment method in Saskatchewan.
“There are plants in British Columbia and Alberta that recently came online and a long-running plant in Montana is utilizing this technology,” Bucsis wrote. “Magna has been in contact with the Water Security Agency and has the direction for the approval process. This means that a trial plant would need to be built and operated for a year to ensure effluent quality and would not be subject to freezing. “
Every process has its pros and cons, Bucsis said, and a final decision has not been made.
The cost of a trial plant would be $300,000, with 50 per cent covered by FCM. Magna is looking to secure other funding so there would be no cost to the city.
“It would be easy to accommodate the process and should not impact operations if that is the direction chosen,” Bucsis said.
The trial facility could be constructed this year, and if the trial for the wastewater treatment plant is favourable and the government gives it the green light, then the city would move forward.
The current operating budget for the wastewater treatment plant is $510,000, Bucsis said in his report.
“Once we get a process to go with or a path going forward, design can take a year to two years,” said Bucsis. “It’s very important that if they do decide to go a certain route, we’re ready to go.”
Regardless of which direction the city takes, it will be looking at options for grants and funding to help ease the financial cost.
