The mercury is rising and it isn’t inside your thermometer.
Trace amounts of mercury were found inside the regional sewage treatment plant in Waneta, prompting the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary’s environmental services department to investigate.
Manager of environmental services, Alan Stanley, said “very small trace amounts of mercury” were found Wednesday in an excessive mineral grit that was inflowing into the system.
He said there were only a couple of isolated spots of mercury and it was contained to a couple of rooms inside the plant.
After several of environmental and atmospheric tests to check for public safety and worker safety, they developed a plan to remove the mercury.
“There was no mercury that went in to the river according to the Ministry of Environment’s tests,” Stanley noted. “Public safety was never an issue.”