Selkirk using treated wastewater on trees and flowers

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The City of Selkirk’s wastewater treatment plant does such a good job that its water is being used in the community to water trees and plants.

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The City of Selkirk confirmed they have begun the process of using water treated at their wastewater plant for the more than 8,000 trees and plants in the city that is located about 20 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Selkirk’s Manager of Utilities Raven Sharma said the watering of trees and plants in Selkirk typically requires between 5,000 and 9,000 gallons of water per week.

“The city is now using treated wastewater instead of drawing from the aquifer,” Sharma said. “On a weekly basis, we are leaving up to 9,000 gallons of water in the aquifer.”

According to Sharma, the move comes after they got an official Notice of Alteration (NOA) from the province in February that gave “the green light to reclaim water from our wastewater for industrial purposes and for watering our trees and plants.”

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Selkirk’s current wastewater plant, which began operating in 2021, treats all wastewater in the city using a membrane filtration system while also using zero fossil fuels in its day-to-day operations.

“We’re contributing to the circular economy and it’s possible because of our state-of-the-art regional wastewater treatment plant that treats effluent to a higher standard than provincial regulations require,” Sharma said.

“We have a safe and secure supply of water in the city of Selkirk, and incorporating water recycling into our day-to-day practices only improves the situation.”

The plant has been lauded for its ability to treat sewer water, as back in April the facility was awarded the Red River Basin Commission (RRBC) North Chapter Award, and RRBC said that options were being considered to reuse and recycle water from the plant “because it is so clean.”

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Selkirk CAO Duane Nicol said the city also has plans to recycle wastewater on an “industrial” scale, as Calgary-based Canadian Premium Sands Inc. (CPS) has been given approval to build a solar glass production plant in the city, and once the plant is completed it will utilize recycled water from the plant “turning a former waste product into a valuable manufacturing resource.”

“When the CPS plant opens in the city, creating as many as 300 jobs and pumping tens of millions of dollars into the local economy each year, it will become the first industry in the province to use Rewater in its operations for the cooling of glass,” Nicol said.

“This one innovation will eliminate the need for using fresh water, potentially a million litres a day.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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