ARROW Utilities works diligently to minimize the impact of spills and odours from our transmission systems. We work alongside communities, residents, and businesses to identify any issues to address them efficiently and effectively.
Spill Reporting
ARROW Utilities has a spill reporting procedure to help our plant operators prepare for any unexpected releases to the sanitary sewer.
If there is any immediate danger to human health and/or safety, please contact:
- 9-1-1 emergency, and
- Your municipality’s utility department’s emergency number.
Your municipality will then notify ARROW Utilities’ operations group, available 24/7, at (780) 416-9967.
If there is no immediate danger, please contact:
- Your municipality’s utility department’s emergency number,
- The owner of the premises where the spill release occurred, and
- Anyone else whom the person reporting knows may be directly affected by the spill release.
Your municipality will notify ARROW Utilities’ operations group, available 24/7, at (780) 416-9967.
If no immediate danger is present, please take all reasonable efforts to contain and clean up the spill while protecting human health and safety. Contaminated soil, water and sorbent materials must be disposed of at an appropriate facility.
Within five working days after the spill, provide a detailed report to your municipality’s utility department and to ARROW Utilities at discharge@arrowutilities.ca.
Please refer to your municipality’s Utilities/Sewer Use/Wastewater Bylaw and ARROW Utilities’ Quality of Wastewater Bylaw for further information on spills and spill reporting requirements.
Odour Reporting
ARROW Utilities recognizes that odours from our system can cause concern. We are working, both in our day-to-day operations and our long-term system improvement planning, to minimize odour.
If you’re concerned about odours in a particular area, please get in touch with us. We want to hear from residents when there’s a problem.
If you contact us with an odour complaint, we’ll investigate the problem area, do what we can to fix the issue and report back to you on what we’ve done. Even if there isn’t an immediate solution, we’ll follow up with you to explain what’s causing the odour and how we’ll address the problem in the long term.
To report an odour issue, please contact our control room at 780-416-9967.
Frequently Asked Odour Questions
What causes odours?
Usually, odour arises where there are bends and turns in our wastewater lines or where one line meets another. The agitation of the wastewater as it moves around the bends creates odour-causing compounds like hydrogen sulphide.
Do odours mean the air isn’t safe to breathe?
Although odours are unpleasant, they don’t pose any health risks. We vigorously monitor the air quality around our lines to make sure it’s safe for our technicians and members of the public.
We evaluate air quality using standards set for occupational health and safety. Air that meets these standards is safe for people to work in for hours at a time, and the air quality above our lines (even in areas where we know odour is a problem) falls well within occupational health and safety guidelines.
What does ARROW Utilities do to minimize odours?
We add caustic soda to our system to neutralize odour-producing compounds as much as possible. We also check areas where we’ve had an odour complaint for any unsealed manhole covers or other problems. Wherever we can, we fix these issues immediately.
