Smell in northwest Regina could get worse before it gets better

The smell in northwest Regina could get a bit worse before it gets better as work continues to fix to problem at the wastewater treatment plant.

The City of Regina sent out a public advisory on behalf of EPCOR which operates the new facility.

During construction some of the sludge had to be moved into an existing lagoon where it normally wouldn’t go. A combination of heat and wind patterns made the smell waft over some neighbourhoods in the northwest part of the city.

The smell is coming from one particular lagoon and on Tuesday EPCOR will be applying a new chemical treatment to the water and using mixers to stir up the residuals.

“The actions may cause further odour for a short period of time, however we expect it will improve the overall situation over the next week and in the longer term,” EPCOR explained in a news release.

Mixing the chemical treatment into the lagoon is meant to speed up the process of breaking down the residuals that are causing the smell.

The city and EPCOR say there is no public health risk from the smell.