A McCain Foods (Canada) plant in Carberry, Manitoba has revitalized a former wastewater lagoon with a wastewater treatment centre and the naturalization of habitat around the area.
After an investment of more than $20 million in an advanced wastewater treatment centre and an expanded irrigation program, the site has become home to ducks and other waterfowl as well as vegetation such as cat-tails, bulrushes, trees, and prairie grasses. McCain also brought in Ducks Unlimited Canada to plant a variety of flood-prone and upland grass around the lagoon.
McCain Foods bought the Carberry potato processing plant in 2004. At the time, the wastewater lagoon was purple in colour, had no wildlife, and neighbours often complained about the smell. But after much planning, design and construction, earlier this year, the company implemented the first two phases of its new wastewater treatment system. The first phase of the system removes mud and frying oil from the wastewater, and the second phase, a covered anaerobic lagoon (CAL), removes nitrogen and phosphate. The third and final phase, which will remove additional nutrients from the wastewater, will be completed next month.
