French Creek Pollution Control Centre: Expansion and Odour Control Upgrades

French Creek Pollution Control Centre (FCPCC) treats wastewater from about 28,000 people and businesses in Qualicum Beach and Parksville and the service areas of French Creek, Pacific Shores, Surfside, and Barclay Crescent. FCPCC also treats trucked waste from homes with septic systems and holding tanks. FCPCC currently provides Secondary Treatment which is the provincial and federal requirement.

The RDN is developing a $48.5 million expansion and odour upgrade to:

• increase plant capacity by about 30% and meet the service area demands to 2040,
• improve operational efficiency and replace aging infrastructure in the existing plant,
• incorporate extensive odour control upgrades for the existing plant,
• include odour controls for the expansion, and
• contribute to carbon neutrality by using solar panels and recovering heat from treated effluent.

FCPCC is also participating in a Contaminants of Emerging Concern Planning Study to:

• monitor wastewater for the presence of some unregulated substances,
• provide insight into the ability of different treatment technologies to remove contaminants of emerging concern, and
• support future decision making regarding future treatment levels.

How you can get involved

To stay informed of project updates, please:

• "Register" and "subscribe" using the tabs on the right-hand side of the page. By doing so you will receive occasional emails with project updates.
• Review the background documents. Content will be added as the project progresses.
• Explore this webpage to find out more.

To report an odour

If you detect odours coming from FCPCC, you can report it directly to plant staff by calling:

• 250-248-5794 during business hours or
• 1-800-862-3429 after hours.

All odour reports are recorded and investigated. We encourage you to make your report as soon as you can so we can accurately investigate the cause (and sometimes relieve the odour).