Rest stop sewage dumping station closing

The Town of Bowden is permanently closing the sewage dumping station at its rest stop, primarily due to cost and vandalism, although the potential for receiving contaminated waste is also a concern.

The town's chief administrative officer, Andy Weiss, predicts the shutdown will happen in a few weeks.

Council made the decision to close the dumping station during its regular council meeting last week.

Weiss says there are a couple of practical reasons for the decision.

“Really, we're now on the regional system, so costs to treat sewage are significant,” he told the Albertan.

“The other thing that was happening over there was it was a voluntary pay box and the pay box was getting vandalized so much that it was actually costing us money. Every time we repaired the box it cost us more than we were getting from it,” he added.

Contamination is another concern.

“Now that we're on the regional system, the risk of receiving contaminated waste from unscrupulous commercial truckers is certainly a huge concern and it is not something that we believe we should be risking, so we're shutting it down permanently as soon as is practical,” Weiss said.

He was asked what “as soon as is practical” means.

“I would say weeks,” he said.

“We've got some stuff to organize and things to order and that sort of thing, so I certainly anticipate by the end of the year it'll all be done.”

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