2012 – McBride, the economic centre of the Robson Valley, is a vibrant, rural community. Forestry, agriculture, tourism and small business form the community’s economic base. The community’s water and sewer infrastructure was in need of urgent upgrades and expansion in order to enable the Village of McBride to issue new building permits and facilitate economic development in the community. McBride’s aging wastewater system discharged directly into the Fraser River, so it was extremely important that pollutants be treated and removed prior to discharge to ensure no adverse impacts on a valuable natural resource that is directly tied to the sustainability of McBride, the Robson Valley, and numerous communities throughout BC.
In 2008, the municipality continued development of an innovative project multi-year project that has transformed McBride’s wastewater system into a new and modern facility. The system now enables McBride to develop its industrial park while ensuring that its wastewater capacity can handle additional development and produce clean, safe effluent for discharge directly to the Fraser River. Previous to this project, Northern Development provided the Village with funding in 2006 to develop an additional wastewater treatment lagoon and associated infrastructure to initiate this multi-year development project.
The project reduces contaminants within the treated wastewater to safe levels for discharge to the Fraser River, preserving salmon spawning grounds and creating long-term benefits that improve McBride’s overall community sustainability.
This project is part of a multi-year development that has been supported through two additional investments by Northern Development for Village of McBride projects:
