Sweden has been called the most sustainable country in the world while countries like Norway, Australia, and Germany rank very high on the global innovation scale. Somewhere in the midst of all this high-achieving greatness sits our small town in the middle of Canada.
In 2014, Niverville received the Manitoba Excellence in Sustainability Award, granted by the Government of Manitoba for the natural cleanup of our sewage lagoon. This is the very same level of government that, just ten years earlier, said it couldn’t be done.
This may not sound like any great accomplishment in global terms, but if you ask Town Council, it is a monumental feat they are incredibly proud of. And so they should be. A natural, sustainable project of this type had never been done in North America. It saved Niverville taxpayers more than $1 million, and it was a success.
In 2005, Town Council was faced with a dilemma. The initial lagoon, located southwest of Hespeler Park, was no longer adequate to meet the demand of a growing community. Originally built in the 1970s, it had reached its saturation point. The lagoon could no longer replenish itself and there was evidence of contaminants leaching into the surrounding soil.
As per provincial legislation, council had only one option: remove the sludge at the base of the lagoon. They could either transfer it to a landfill suitable for toxic waste, of which there are few, or transfer it to agricultural land, which limits a farmer’s use of the land and poses a risk to grazing cattle. The cost: over $2 million.
Council was also concerned about the environmental cost in terms of the carbon footprint caused by hauling 53,000 tonnes of waste a considerable distance. The remaining acreage on which the lagoon sat would then not be suitable for development.
An idea was hatched, partly through concerned community members and partly through council research.
Phytoremediation is a fancy term for the natural detoxifying power of plants. Certain plants, such as cattails and some grasses, have the capacity to remove contaminants from soil and water sources. The unique physiology of wetland plants and their relationship with microorganisms combine to transform common pollutants into harmless by-products or essential nutrients.
Council brought this solution to the provincial government. But it was unconventional, and the province wouldn’t hear of it.
“You want to do what’s right, and you know what’s right,” says Jim Buys, Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Niverville, “but all the doors are slammed in your face.”
Still believing they had a viable, environmentally friendly strategy, council partnered with Ducks Unlimited, a wetland conservation organization, and Native Plant Solutions (NPS), specialists in environmental sciences.
Niverville made a second proposal to the provincial government, this time with the aid of conservation experts and representatives from the University of Manitoba’s soil science division. Around a table of highbrow intellectuals, council appealed their case. The province approved the plan, to be carried out as an experimental study on sustainable wastewater solutions.
NPS took on the role of project manager. They commissioned the town to excavate the lagoon and form the contaminated sludge into embankments onto which cattails and switch grass were transplanted from nearby land. They created a manmade wetland.
Town Council and NPS partnered with researchers and U of M graduate students to conduct a series of greenhouse experiments and field trials. Over the next few years, samples were taken from the cattails, grasses, sludge, and water. Harvesting the plants was found to hasten the remediation
process and remove the contam-inants that had been absorbed by the plants. Since these plants renew quickly, there was no need to seed again. It truly was an all-natural
solution.
In fall of 2012, Niverville received a grant from the Lake Winnipeg Basin Stewardship Fund. At the same time, Hank Dueck, former science teacher at NCI, was invited to participate in the project along with his Grade 10 class to further the educational aspect on a local level.
“It is rare that students have an opportunity to see a sustainable solution to a large problem like this develop in their own communities,” says Dueck. “There was a definite sense of pride among our students to know that their community was taking action in a meaningful and practical way.”
The project brought land reclamation specialists and soil science experts from across Canada to Niverville to witness it firsthand.
At the end of 2015, based on the positive outcome, the province declared a section of the lagoon free of environmental concerns. Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck says the next phase is to incorporate the lagoon into Hespeler Park and create a wetland site with an interpretive centre and walking paths.
“Niverville has done something here that is absolutely astounding,” says Buys. “It took something as ugly as a sewage lagoon and turned it into something beautiful.”
In the end, a project that was slated to cost the town over $2 million came in at just over $750,000. The continuing story is the effect this project will have on other communities, Canada as a whole, and beyond.
Mayor Dyck praises previous mayor Greg Fehr, council members, Jim Buys, and the community members who first initiated this project and had the tenacity to carry it out. He also welcomes other “community champions” to come forward with their ideas so we can continue to build an innovative and sustainable community into the future.
