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Treatment summary
Highlights
Three treatment facilities operated in July – September 2022 (Q3).
- The West Line Creek Active Water Treatment Facility (AWTF) was fully operational. However, it did experience two maintenance shutdowns. Problems with the gravity thickener also resulted in reduced operations in July.
- The Elkview Operations Saturated Rock Fill (EVO SRF) and Fording River Operations South (FRO-S) AWTF both operated at reduced capacity this quarter.
- The EVO SRF continued to treat water from Natal Pit only. The discharge pipeline to Erickson Creek stayed offline so EVR could continue investigations of unusual findings from the aquatic insect monitoring program in Erickson Creek. The pipeline is expected to come back online in October 2022. As a result, the amount of treatment (throughput) at EVO SRF is expected to increase.
- The FRO-S AWTF transitioned from start-up to operations on July 1, 2022. EVR worked to increase the amount of treatment at this facility throughout the quarter. Further increases in capacity are expected in winter 2022 (Q4). In September, the FRO-S AWTF set new Elk Valley records for selenium and nitrate removal.
Fording River Operations North 1 Saturated Rockfill (FRO-N1 SRF) treatment facility is currently in development.
- The first phase of this facility (9,500 m3/day capacity) continues to prepare for start-up by circulating water within the facility. Permit application for the second phase (30,000 m3/day total capacity, including Phase 1) is under review by regulators.
- This facility is not yet discharging treated water to the environment.
Overall, Elk Valley treatment facilities operated at approximately 50% of total potential capacity this quarter. Facilities removed 577 kg of selenium and 72,824 kg of nitrate. These are the largest quarterly removals of selenium and nitrate to date in the Elk Valley.
Treatment progress
Amount of selenium removed and remaining in the Elk River
Amount of nitrate removed and remaining in the Elk River
The graphs above show the total estimated amount of selenium and nitrate in the Elk River at Fernie as grey bars, and the amount of selenium (green bars) and nitrate (blue bars) removed by treatment, each quarter.
The substance amounts removed by treatment continued to increase during the third quarter of 2022.
Removal gains resulting from increased treatment at the FRO-S AWTF were somewhat offset by reduced operations at the EVO SRF. As a result, the actual removal amounts were less than what would be expected at full treatment capacity, but still higher than previous years.
- Selenium removal increased by 4% from the previous quarter and was approximately 60% greater than during the third quarter of 2021.
- Nitrate removal increased by 22% from the previous quarter and was more than 140% greater than during the third quarter of 2021.
The amount of selenium removed by treatment increased considerably between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022. However, as can be visualized by comparing the relative size of the colored bars and the grey bars, the proportion of the total selenium removed remained similar. This is because flow in the Elk River was higher during the third quarter of 2022, especially during July and August, compared to 2021. As a result, the total amount of selenium in the river was higher and so the proportion that was removed in 2022 is similar despite the increased removal amount.
The substance amounts in the Elk River are calculated from water quality data collected by EVR and flow data collected by the Water Survey of Canada. The amount of each substance in the Elk River varies with the amount of flow in the river. In general, the higher the flow the greater the amount, and vice-versa.