The quarterly publication of the Western Canada Water Association included an article by a Portage la Prairie City Councillor. Waterworks Chair Wayne Wall says the association covers seven constituent organizations with over 6,000 members in western and northern Canada.

Wall holding the edition of the magazine containing his article"I had a call from Bill Brant, the editor of the magazine, a few months ago asking if I would do an article on 70 Years of Wastewater Treatment in Portage la Prairie, for the 70th anniversary for Western Canada Water," says Wall. "I agreed to do it, and now it's been published."

Wall says the article outlines how much change, as well as progress, took place in our city with wastewater treatment. Today there is a Class-4 utilities operation in Portage which is very modern and complex, and most advanced.

He notes his article starts in 1948 when Portage had no wastewater treatment. Two sewage lift stations existed with pipe in the ground dating back to the late 1800's. Water and wastewater systems pumped down Broadway (today's 5th Street SE) and out to what was called Pratt's Landing on the Assiniboine River. Wall explains this was raw sewage pumped right into the river. He notes the saying of the day was, "Dilution is the solution to the problem of pollution." He laughingly stresses that's not the philosophy they stand by today.

Then Wall says the 1960's saw a two-cell facultative lagoon system at Peony Farm. That remained for ten years until 1970 when it was shut down due to leakage that caused leaching into an adjacent farmland. A farmer by the name of Roberts took the city to court due to his crop failures. Wall says Roberts lost in the Court of Queen's Bench, then lost again in the appeals court. But he won in the Supreme Court of Canada case. Roberts was awarded $9,000 for loss of his crops. He notes the lagoons were then moved to the present site of the wastewater treatment plant when two new aerated lagoons were constructed there.

Wall adds from that time until today plenty of progress took place, starting with the deep shaft system in the 1980's. He says one interesting piece of history from that time included the loss of a 54-inch diameter bit while drilling a shaft at the depth of 250 feet. That bit was never recovered. Wall notes in 2017 that hole collapsed and had to be filled with concrete and recapped.

Wall adds they're looking forward to upgrading current systems to do nutrient removal, which is a $100-million project coming up in the next couple of years.

Click here to read online:  Western Canada Water