The City of Prince George is facing a $1,250 administrative monetary penalty after an inspection of the Lansdowne Road wastewater treatment plant found six compliance issues.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy environmental protection officer Julia Coleman conducted a scheduled inspection of the wastewater plant on May 1. In a May 4 report, Coleman informed the city that she would be recommending an administrative monetary penalty for one of the compliance issues.
Coleman noted that facility chief operator Lorne Sandberg’s Wastewater Treatment Facility Class IV (WWT IV) and Wastewater Collections Class IV (WWC IV) certifications were no longer current.
“The EOCP website shows Mr. Sandberg for the Reporting Period January 1, 2022, to December 12, 2023, has Not Met the CEU (certification education unit) requirements for both required certifications applicable to this facility: WWT IV and WWC IV,” Coleman wrote. “Please note, this non-compliance is being referred for an administrative monetary penalty.”
The city had been found out of compliance of the requirement to have a certified operator on-site on March 3, 2020, Feb. 16, 2021 and June 8, 2022, she added. The city was advised of the issue in 2020 and 2021, and issued a warning in 2022.
Coleman also directed the city to install a suitable flow-measuring device to record the municipal effluent volume discharged from the facility into the Fraser River. While the city does measure the volume of influent coming into the wastewater treatment plant, it doesn’t measure the outflow as required by regulation, she wrote.
A review of the city’s Monthly Water Quality Reports found that on Aug. 11, 2022, the effluent discharged from the wastewater facility exceeded the 5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) standard of 30 mg/L. The water discharged from the facility on that day had a measured concentration of 34 mg/L, Coleman wrote.
Biochemical oxygen demand is a measurement of the amount of oxygen consumed by bacteria and other microorganisms as they decompose organic matter.
Coleman also highlighted three incidents in which the City of Prince George had failed to meet the ministry’s reporting requirements.
“For data submissions that have exceedances, include an explanation as to the cause of the exceedance, and a description of the measures taken by the City of PG to rectify the cause of each such exceedance,” Coleman directed the city.
A City of Prince George spokesperson said the city corrected the outstanding issues immediately.
"A City consultant had full certification for the work conducted however, an administrative requirement for certification in another area was not in good standing," the spokesperson said in an email. "The City responded and corrected the certification requirements the same day and the penalty was reduced to $1,250. The City was in full compliance the same day. It has not been decided if the penalty will be disputed."
