City Receives Provincial Penalty Related to Wastewater Permit Compliance
July 13, 2026
The City of Fernie has received a $13,395 administrative penalty from the provincial Ministry of Environment and Parks for compliance issues related to the City’s wastewater treatment permit.
The penalty follows a provincial inspection of Fernie’s wastewater system in November 2025 and the resulting Compliance Inspection Report, which the Ministry referred for administrative penalty earlier this year.
This process reflects a long-standing gap between the City’s 1994 wastewater treatment permit and how the system operates today, an issue the City has been working with the Ministry to resolve since 2020. Major plant upgrades completed in 2015 were built with Ministry staff sign-off but were never formally added to the permit by the Province.
In October 2025, the City completed a 2.5 year effort preparing and submitting an application under the Municipal Wastewater Regulation (MWR). This is the Province’s modern regulatory framework, which will formally authorize the City’s existing infrastructure and the upgrades needed to meet today’s treatment standards.
The City has taken significant action to address the inspection findings and move toward full compliance:
- Approximately $1M has been invested over the past three years in environmental studies, system monitoring, and engineering design in support of MWR registration.
- Work is underway to complete final engineering designs for treatment plant upgrades and to renew efforts to reduce stormwater entering the wastewater system.
- Improved flow-monitoring equipment is being procured and installed.
- Registration under the MWR is anticipated in early 2027. Once granted, the City will have three years to construct the planned treatment plant upgrades, with full compliance targeted by 2030.
The efforts underway to address issues in the City's wastewater infrastructure are focused on two challenges: compliance under the permit, and significant volumes of stormwater incorrectly entering the wastewater system. Excess stormwater can overwhelm the system's design capacity and is caused by increasingly intense storms, aging pipes and manholes, and private residences sending stormwater or groundwater into the City’s wastewater system.
Protecting public health and the environment remains the City’s top priority. The City continues to work openly with provincial regulators and will keep the community informed as the compliance process moves forward.
More information about Fernie’s wastewater system, the challenges it faces, and the plan to address them is available at letstalk.fernie.ca/wastewater.
