Wastewater Treatment Plant
Harrison Hot Springs Wastewater System — Integrated Record (History, Risk, and Evidence)
1) System purpose and constraints
Harrison Hot Springs’ sanitary sewer system serves a small permanent population but experiences large seasonal and wet-weather flow spikes. The system consists of multiple gravity sewer catchments, lift stations, and a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) that discharges under provincial permit near Harrison Lake. This location increases regulatory sensitivity and reduces tolerance for operational error. The system’s limiting factor is not treatment alone, but hydraulic capacity across the collection system 2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste….
2) Original design reality
The system was not originally designed for today’s combination of tourism demand, RV parks, resort flows, aging pipes, and increasingly intense rainfall. Design assumptions that once worked have been overtaken by growth and climate-driven wet-weather inflows, leaving little operational margin during storms 2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste….
3) Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) as the dominant driver
The Master Plan identifies groundwater infiltration and rainfall-derived inflow (RDII) as the primary cause of peak flows. Stormwater enters the sanitary system through aging infrastructure and cross-connections. Several major contributors, including resort and RV park areas, required direct monitoring because their inflows were not fully characterized until recently 2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste….
4) Regulatory framework
The WWTP operates under a provincial discharge permit with defined daily limits. Exceeding any permit condition constitutes non-compliance regardless of intent or cause. Compliance depends on both treatment performance and the hydraulic behavior of the upstream collection system.
5) 2020 non-compliance (documented)
In January 2020, the WWTP exceeded its permitted discharge volume on multiple days. The regulator recorded this as non-compliance due to hydraulic overload. Mitigation included operating the plant at maximum capacity and pumping excess liquid to storage. Required actions included reducing I&I and adjusting permitted capacity. The record does not document untreated sewage discharge.
6) What the 2020 record establishes
The 2020 event confirms that:
Capacity exceedances were real and documented
The cause was hydraulic overload consistent with I&I
Storage and operational measures are temporary controls, not solutions
Permit limits no longer aligned with wet-weather reality
This was an early warning of structural system limits.
7) 2025 flow monitoring and modelling (confirmation)
Flow monitoring conducted in 2025 quantified base flows, groundwater infiltration, and RDII. Results show that wet-weather flows are dominated by RDII and can push multiple system components to or beyond capacity. Climate-adjusted rainfall projections indicate increasing future risk. Even with upgrades, I&I reduction is essential to maintain compliance 2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste….
8) Capital needs and acknowledged risk
The Master Plan identifies numerous high- and medium-priority projects, including sewer upsizing, forcemain upgrades, lift station improvements, system-wide I&I reduction, enhanced monitoring, and emergency response planning. Total costs are in the millions of dollars. The Plan explicitly acknowledges ongoing capacity exceedance risk if these actions are not implemented 2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste….
9) December 2025 and public dispute (proper framing)
Heavy rainfall in December 2025 occurred within a system already known to be capacity-constrained. The Village states that no untreated wastewater was discharged during that period. Whether that statement is accurate can only be verified by operational records such as discharge logs, storage levels, and any bypass or overflow reports. Historical non-compliance and capacity risk do not, by themselves, prove untreated discharge; such claims require specific event documentation.
Integrated conclusion
The official record shows a wastewater system that is structurally stressed, not recklessly operated. Regulatory non-compliance has occurred due to capacity limits driven by inflow and infiltration. The Village’s own engineers confirm that risk remains and that major corrective action is required. Assertions of untreated discharge must be supported by operational evidence; assertions that the system has no capacity problem are contradicted by the documented record.
Sources & Records
The information summarized on this page is based on the following primary source documents:
Sanitary Sewer Master Plan – Village of Harrison Hot Springs (Dec 4, 2025)
Prepared by Water Street Engineering Ltd.
This document provides system background, hydraulic modelling, flow monitoring results, identification of inflow and infiltration (I&I), capacity exceedances, and recommended capital projects and risk mitigation measures.
2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste…Flow Monitoring Data Analysis – Village of Harrison Hot Springs (Sept 29, 2025)
Prepared by Water Street Engineering Ltd.
This technical memorandum documents measured dry-weather and wet-weather flows, rainfall-derived inflow and infiltration (RDII), groundwater infiltration, and climate-adjusted design assumptions used in system modelling.
2025.12.19-Sanitary-Sewer-Maste…BC Environmental Compliance Non-Compliance Report – Permit PE-116 (January 2020)
Issued to the Village of Harrison Hot Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant.
This regulator record documents exceedances of the permitted daily discharge volume due to hydraulic overload and identifies corrective actions, including I&I reduction and permit adjustment.Village of Harrison Hot Springs Press Release – January 6, 2026
Village statement responding to public claims regarding wastewater discharges during December 2025.
The Village states that no untreated wastewater was discharged during that period.
Use of sources
All conclusions on this page are drawn directly from the documents above. Where statements rely on Village communications, they are identified as such. Where claims remain disputed, they are noted as requiring confirmation through operational records (e.g., discharge logs, storage levels, bypass reports).