In April 2020, the town of Smithers received a letter from Environment and Climate Change Canada about the town's wastewater treatment plant. The letter addressed the effluent (sewage water) levels being discharged into the Bulkley River and the concentration of suspended solids within the effluent.

The letter from ECCC stated that the levels of carbonaceous biochemical oxygen concentrations (CBOD) of deleterious substances exceeded the national standard mandated by Environment Canada.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is responsible for administering and enforcing the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER) made under the Fisheries Act.

The WSER were put in place to reduce threats to fish, fish habitat and human use of fish by decreasing the amount of harmful substances released into water through wastewater effluent. The Regulations set national quality standards for effluent and provide time frames by which owners and operators of wastewater treatment facilities across Canada must meet them through a transitional authorization provision. The effluent quality standards require facilities to achieve a secondary level of treatment.

According to Mayor Gladys Atrill, the town "took the letter seriously and made it a top priority to address this issue." However, the cost of upgrading the current plant's operations comes at a cost of $7-million dollars, of which the town does not possess.

Smithers town council wrote and submitted a grant to the Green Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), but it was denied in October 2021. Mayor Atrill said the town "did not receive grounds on which the application was denied."

Since then, the town has updated and resent their application hoping for a positive response this time.

Time is ticking, and CICK News will stick with this project as it unfolds.

Listen below to Pam Haasen's interview with Mayor Gladys Atrill: