Just days after the city of Orillia, Ontario, declared a state of emergency from a severe ice storm, lightning struck the secondary digester at the local wastewater treatment plant, igniting a fire that damaged the facility.
Most of the 34,000 residents in the city had been without electricity for nearly a week, after the March 29 ice storm devastated trees that downed power lines in the community.
Later, heavy rainfall meant that water levels exceeded optimal operation levels for the wastewater system, local officials said.
“We are doing everything possible to mitigate the effects of this incident and the rain and maintain essential services,” announced Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac in a statement on April 3.
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
The latest environmental engineering news direct to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.
To help reduce strain on the wastewater system while emergency repairs are underway, all residents were asked to limit water use as much as possible. Municipal officials have also implemented emergency protocols and are hauling sewage to alternative facilities, while using all available system redundancies to reduce impacts.
No injuries were reported at the plant from the lightning strike, “however, the damage sustained has affected the normal operation of wastewater treatment systems, which are currently not operating at full capacity,” local officials announced.
Due to the large number of private well users in the area who depend on power for drinking water, local officials arranged to bring in water trailers where residents could fill containers.
Long-term clearing of debris and brush may take weeks or months to accomplish, local officials warned.
Peterborough and Fenelon Falls were the other two hardest-hit areas of the province from the ice storm.
