Scientific research disputes the need for a costly sewage treatment plant scheduled for Winnipeg. The proposed $10 to $50 million plant will include a biological nutrient removal process to strip effluent of nitrogen and phosphorus.
After a 37-year experiment, University of Alberta scientist David Schindler says there is no point removing nitrogen from the Lake Winnipeg watershed when phosphorus is the key pollutant causing potentially deadly blue-green algae blooms.
Schindler's research compiled from the Experimental Lakes Area east of Kenora, Ontario suggests nitrogen removal will fail to control blue-green algae blooms and will in fact encourage growth. Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board recommends reducing phosphorus concentration to 1mg/L and removing nitrogen only if necessary.
Water and sewage bills are expected to double by the middle of next decade and Winnipeggers, politicians and scientists are questioning the logic of a costly nitrogen removal process. Schindler recommends treatment should focus on phosphorus removal to stop the degradation of Lake Winnipeg.
View July 23, 2008 Winnipeg Free Press article
View CBC's A Sea of Troubles - Lake Winnipeg in Crisis
View July 22, 2008 Victoria Times Colonist article
View December 2006 Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board, Reducing Nutrient Loading to Lake Winnipeg and its Watershed: Our Collective Responsibility and Commitment to Action (PDF)
View City of Winnipeg Wastewater Upgrades Project Overview - North End Water Pollution Control Centre (NEWPCC) project upgrades
Sources: Winnipeg Free Press, CBC, Victoria Times Colonist, Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board, City of Winnipeg |