Sewage System

Wastewater treatment plant upgrades

The federal government is planning to change the regulations for wastewater treatment systems in 2012. The federal regulations will set national standards for wastewater treatment systems that municipalities will need to meet around 2020, and further standards to meet by 2030. The regulations will affect one in four wastewater systems in Canada at a cost of more than $10 billion.

The provincial government requires the City of Regina to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant by 2016 to higher standards than the 2030 national standards. For the City of Regina, the cost of upgrading our wastewater treatment plant to meet the new regulations is more than $150 million.  However, neither the federal or provincial governments are including any additional funding to help mitigate these costs.

In 1999 Regina ranked behind only Calgary and Edmonton in the Sierra Legal Defense Fund’s National Sewage Report Card, demonstrating that the City is a leader in treating wastewater responsibly. Regina is Canada’s only major land-locked city with no adjacent lake or river.  This poses unique challenges in terms of supplying water to an urban centre as well as disposal of wastewater. The City recognizes the need to further improve wastewater treatment.

Although the wastewater treatment plant has gone through eight previous upgrades, this will be one of the City’s largest capital projects ever.

Did you know?
We currently treat the equivalent of 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools of wastewater every day.

How the wastewater system works

Wastewater flows through the City of Regina's sewage system to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, located just west of Regina. If laid out in a straight line, Regina's 725 kilometres of sewer lines would reach almost to Calgary.

The City of Regina’s Wastewater Treatment Plant treats about 80 million litres of sewage from bathtubs, toilets, sinks and washing machines each day and follows the path shown in the graphic below: