Cranbrook Breaks Ground on $14.5M Wastewater Project

Last week Cranbrook, British Columbia held an official groundbreaking to commemorate the start of construction on the anticipated $14.5 million City of Cranbrook Wastewater Improvement Project.

In total, the project includes the process of issuing 14 contract tenders. To date 7 of the 14 tenders have been issued, with the remaining tenders expected to be out by mid-July. Extensive work is tentatively slated to begin in August with the majority of major construction complete by the end of December 2010.

The project includes several components:

• Rehabilitation of the transfer pipeline between the lagoons and the spray irrigation site storage ponds.
• Convert Pond 2 to a combination aerated treatment cell and storage pond and create a new Pond 3.
• Construct disinfection facility(s) to treat treated effluent (Municipal Sewage Regulation requirements).
• Construct permanent outfall pipeline to Kootenay River.
• Upgrade aeration system in City’s treatment lagoons.
• Upgrades to the transfer pump station.
• Upgrades to electrical systems, pumps, motors and valves within spray irrigation facility pump house and incorporation of comprehensive process control systems.
• Modify existing spray equipment to allow conversion to low pressure operation and of pivot control systems to allow precise control of irrigation rates based on weather and soil moisture conditions.

It is hoped that this project, funded by provincial and federal governments, will provide a model for a more environmental option for treatment of sewage and uses of reclaimed water, a precious and finite resource, for other cities and communities throughout North America.