Wetlands Open House This Thursday

May 8, 2018 | 2:00 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City is using Water week as an educational tool, with an open house this Thursday at the Western Acres wetlands. while it looks more like a bird sanctuary, the wetlands are also part of a sanitary system for that neighbourhood.

“Our Water Week open house last year focused on how water gets to your tap, so this year we are focusing on what happens to water once it goes down the drain,” says Andrea Byrne, environmental assistant for the City.

The primary part of the system is the lagoon, which has three cells to treat the wastewater to naturally remove pollutants.

“Lagoons are important as they are a natural method of treating wastewater, meaning they are non-mechanical and non-chemical. This also means they require much less maintenance and cost much less to operate than a wastewater treatment facility. However, lagoons require much more space than modern treatment facilities, which isn’t always available in an urban environment given the significant volumes of wastewater created by a city.”