{"id":461633,"date":"2026-05-26T23:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/461633\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:12:10","slug":"canmores-battle-against-sewage-stench-continues-with-an-end-in-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/461633\/","title":{"rendered":"Canmore’s battle against sewage stench continues, with an end in sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Residents of and visitors to Canmore can expect this to be \u2014 hopefully \u2014 the final summer where a sewage smell will waft through the townsite.<\/p>\n

The Alberta municipality has tried to fix the stinky problem, which stems from its wastewater treatment plant, since 2022. <\/p>\n

The latest fixes are anticipated to cost $7.2 million.<\/p>\n

Though meant to be fixed before this summer, delays have pushed the project wrap-up to later this year.<\/p>\n

Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert said \u201cit\u2019s still a priority,\u201d and the town is moving \u201cas fast as it can go\u201d to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

\"ACanmore Mayor Sean Krausert stands near the community’s wastewater treatment plant on Aug. 22, 2025. The municipality has spent about $1.7 million trying to fix the issue already. (Greg Colgan\/CBC)Canmore tried multiple fixes<\/p>\n

The municipality has thrown everything at the problem, but it\u2019s continued to linger.<\/p>\n

The odour used to get pushed to the west of Canmore, but shifting winds began carrying it into the townsite.<\/p>\n

That led to multiple attempts to quell the stench with chemical dousing and a carbon air scrubber, totalling about $1.7 million. Each step helped, but missed eradicating the whiff of sewage.<\/p>\n

A final phase will see an enclosure built over the open air sewage treatment tanks, essentially creating a giant air purifier. Town council approved a budget of $5 million, but the specialty parts coming from as far as South America now have it forecast at $7.2 million.<\/p>\n

Designing those fixes and getting the parts for them take time.<\/p>\n

The project was also held up for several months as the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas asked for clarification on the work being done.<\/p>\n

But with council making the project a bigger priority last fall, timelines were accelerated from the standard 26 months to 13 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was very clear from council: this continued to be a priority, and they were very interested in helping move this project forward,\u201d said Andreas Comeau, Canmore\u2019s manager of public works.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Canmore’s multimillion-dollar battle over stinky wastewater continues:\"\"<\/p>\n

Canmore’s $2.6M battle over stinky wastewater continues<\/p>\n

The town of Canmore, just west of Calgary, has spent about $2.6 million trying to combat a persistent smell from a wastewater plant to no avail. As the number of complaints grow, the council is getting ready to look at other possible solutions to stem the stench.More mitigation on the way<\/p>\n

The municipality is adding extra chemical dousing into parts of the plant by the end of May to reduce the smell.<\/p>\n

It will continue its odour reporting that allows people to note locations where they smell the sewage, which in turn lets the municipality and EPCOR, which runs the plant, adjust operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to council and the community to be patient as we get this work done as soon as possible,\u201d Comeau said.<\/p>\n

Krausert said it was \u201cdisappointing\u201d the work couldn\u2019t be done before the summer because of \u201cdelays that were out of our control.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he \u201cespecially appreciated the extra summer mitigation\u201d before work is finished.<\/p>\n

On top of this work, Canmore has to make about $98 million in upgrades to the plant by 2031 to meet new provincial environmental regulations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ACanmore’s wastewater treatment plant on Aug. 22, 2025. Though the odour issue was meant to be fixed before this summer, delays have pushed the project wrap-up to later this year. (Greg Colgan\/CBC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-461633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}