Every day, residents, businesses and industries in Metro Vancouver produce about 1 billion litres of wastewater. Most water becomes wastewater by being “used” in some way. About 80% of the region’s wastewater comes from our homes, when we use toilets, sinks, showers, washing machines and anything else that sends water into a drain or pipe. Wastewater also includes stormwater, which is created when rainfall and snowmelt collects pollutants as it runs off streets, parking lots and other hard surfaces.

Our everyday activities add pollutants to water that need to be removed through a treatment process. Wastewater will eventually end up back in local rivers and oceans, so how we manage it affects our environment and the livability of our region.

Managing our region’s wastewater is a combined effort. Metro Vancouver treats the region’s wastewater (or sewage), which is brought to treatment plants through a municipal system of sewers and sewage pumping stations.

To collect and treat sewage, Metro Vancouver operates a network of trunk sewers, pumping stations and wastewater treatment plants that connect with municipal sewer systems.

We are responsible for:

• Five wastewater treatment plants
• about 530 km of trunk sewer pipes (large pipes that connect to smaller municipal pipes)
• 34 sewage pumping stations

Metro Vancouver also supports municipalities to manage stormwater and does some work on habitat and drainage areas around certain rivers.

Our priority is to protect public health and the environment by maintaining healthy rivers and oceans. As part of the treatment process, we are also trying to find innovative ways to use wastewater as a resource.