The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor The City of Flin Flon is awaiting the findings of a study that could spark a lawsuit against the designer of its sewage treatment plant. Consultants recently visited the multimillion-dollar facility to determine whether a design flaw is to blame for inefficiencies. Their study remains ongoing, with no indication as to when the results will be in the hands of city officials. Rick Bacon, director of works and operations for the city, said two air-blowers at the plant must operate around-the-clock instead of a few hours a day as intended. That's because the blowers are facing too much resistance as they deliver air into the incoming waste in order to stimulate organisms used in the treatment process, he said. 'The main problem is efficiency _ we're wasting power because we have to keep the blowers running all the time,' Bacon said. This inefficiency, he said, in turn creates challenges around pH control and the de-watering of waste. At the recommendation of the Manitoba Water Services Board, city council voted in May to spend $16,200 on the study of the plant. At that time, Coun. Bill Hanson, chair of the Engineering Services Committee, said the plant is working well, just not as efficiently as it could. The Water Services Board recommended a study, Coun. Hanson said, because the warranty on the plant has expired and the board believes there is 'a design flaw.' Municipal Administrator Mark Kolt said there is 'a good potential of a lawsuit' from the study. 'You can't start a lawsuit unless you've got something (that shows) exactly what the problem is and how it occurred,' Kolt said. Carrying a price tag of roughly $13 million, the sewage treatment plant opened in 2005 off Boundary Ave. along Ross Creek. It utilizes a pair of sequential batch reactors to aerate incoming waste. This means a continuous flow of sterilization, as one of the 2,500-cubic metre tanks fills up while the other treats waste material. The plant also features a UV channel, which utilizes ultraviolet light as the final step of disinfection. This replaced the older method of chlorine disinfection, which is less effective and creates byproducts.
