On this page
Treatment summary
Highlights
Three treatment facilities operated at reduced capacity in July – September 2023 (Q3).
- The West Line Creek Active Water Treatment Facility (AWTF), Elkview Operations Saturated Rock Fill (EVO SRF) and Fording River Operations South (FRO-S) AWTF all operated at reduced capacity this quarter.
- The West Line Creek AWTF was bypassed for 22 days in late July through mid-August to allow for repair of the Advanced Oxidation Process ozone generators. The facility was at full operations in September and operated 74% of the time this quarter.
- The EVO SRF’s primary input source from Erickson Creek was shut down for 41 days in August and September to manage turbidity and temperature in Erickson Creek. The facility also experienced several multi-day planned and unplanned shutdowns related to maintenance activities. Consequently, the facility’s two source pipelines operated on average 66% of the time this quarter.
- Following a suspension of the discharge from the FRO S AWTF in May due to toxicity issues in the buffer pond, the facility began discharging treated water again on July 16, 2023. The facility slowly increased the amount of water treated through the remainder of the quarter. Overall, the facility operated 53% of the time this quarter.
The Fording River Operations North 1 Saturated Rock Fill (FRO-N1 SRF) treatment facility is the next major treatment facility in the Elk Valley. When fully operational it will have the capacity to treat up to 30,000 m3/d, which will be the largest in the Elk Valley. This new facility began discharging to the environment in July. The majority of water currently being treated by the facility is from the Turnbull Tailings Facility, which does not flow into the receiving environment. As such, while the facility is removing nitrate and selenium from the water being treated, it isn’t yet removing much from water that is discharging to the environment. Therefore, it’s removal rates were not included in the quarterly totals provided in the treatment summary table. The facility is currently on track to meet its target operational date of December 31, 2023.
Overall, Elk Valley treatment facilities operated at approximately 50% of total potential capacity and were running on average 64% of the time this quarter. Despite the operational challenges, facilities still managed to remove more nitrate and selenium in August 2023 than in any previous August. In total, facilities removed 615 kg of selenium and 79,016 kg of nitrate.
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 amounts of selenium and nitrate that were in the Elk River at Fernie as grey bars, the average measured concentration of these substances in the river as red lines, and the amount of selenium (green bars) and nitrate (blue bars) removed by treatment, each quarter.
The substance amounts removed by treatment (green and blue bars) increased during the third quarter of 2023 as a result the FRO-S AWTF returning to operations and the FRO-N SRF starting to discharge to the environment. However, reduced operations at the FRO-S AWTF, WLC AWTF and EVO SRF resulted in less treatment than anticipated. A sizeable increase in the amount of treatment is expected in the fourth quarter of 2023 as these facilities return to full operations.
The substance amounts in the Elk River at Fernie are calculated from water quality data collected by Teck and flow data collected by the Water Survey of Canada. The amount of each substance varies with the amount of flow in the river. In general, the higher the flow the greater the amount, and vice-versa.
