A storm pond in Springmere was cordoned off after about 2sq. m of untreated sanitary water was mistakenly dumped into it Oct. 5.
A small electrical fire at Chestermere Utilities Inc.’s (CUI) lift station seven meant that untreated sanitary waste water had to be manual removed from the well while a backup generator was installed.
The installation of the generator was completed within an hour of the alarm, unfortunately human error led to a second related incident of sanitary water being released into a storm pond.
CUI used contracted hydrovac trucks to empty the well at lift station seven during the installation of the generator to be transported to lift station 10.
“Unfortunately, in this instance the hydrovac operator didn’t follow the instructions they were given,” said CUI’s Chief Executive Officer Leigh-Anne Palter.
“Instead of travelling to lift station 10 and discharging the contents of the truck into the lift station itself, for reasons that we don’t quite understand they took a different route and discharged directly into the storm pond,” she said.
The untreated sanitary water was released into the storm pond located near the intersection of Chestermere Boulevard and Rainbow Road.
While the release of the untreated sanitary water triggered CUI’s response protocol that includes notifying Alberta Environment, Palter said that fortunately only a small amount of contaminated water was released into the pond.
“The good news is it was a very small amount of water, it was only about two metres cubed,” she said.
When alerted of the release, CUI posted a warning to both its website and Facebook page.
A cordon was also set up at the pond to keep people and pets out of the storm pond.
“Storm ponds aren’t supposed to be used by people or pets for recreation,” said Palter, “but we know that sometimes that happens.”
Because of the relatively small amount of contaminated water that was dumped into the much larger storm pond, Palter said the increased risk was small but there none the less.
“And so just to avoid the risk of any pets…any pets getting ill from ingesting or carrying on them untreated sanitary water, we just took that as a precaution,” she said of the decision to divert people from the storm pond.
Because of the small amount of contaminated water that was released, Palter said that CUI’s only response has been to monitor the water in the pond and work to keep people and pets out of the pond.
“Dilution is the solution,” she said.
“These storm ponds are naturally receptacles for water that is contaminated with…agricultural chemicals or manure or fertilizer, all those kinds of things,” said Palter, “they get diluted and settle out.”
CUI has been testing the storm pond and have removed the warnings.
“We believe that that’s subsided especially given the weather conditions that we’ve had,” said Palter, “the additional run off and the snow and those type of things.”
Had the release been more severe with either a larger volume of water released or a higher strength of contaminated water, Palter said that the only option would have been to pump out the storm pond.
“But that’s not something that’s been suggested as necessary at this point in time,” she said.
