(Submitted photo/City of Meadow Lake)

By meadowlakeNOW Staff

Project Postponed

Meadow Lake pushes dredging to 2026

Aug 12, 2025 | 4:07 PM

The City of Meadow Lake has postponed a planned sewage lagoon dredging project after a survey revealed the amount of sludge and contamination in the lagoon was much larger than originally thought.

The survey found that sludge occupies about 56 per cent of the volume in some treatment cells. The sludge contains high amounts of copper, petroleum hydrocarbons and pathogens that require special disposal in a landfill. Along with the sludge, around 967 cubed metres of grit deposited by vacuum trucks was found in one cell.

Meadow Lake Mayor Merlin Seymour is aware that the news is not what residents wanted to hear.

“We committed to taking action, and the first step was the detailed survey. That survey has now given us an exceptionally clear picture of the problem, and it requires a more robust solution than what could be accomplished with the original budget and timeline. This difficult decision is necessary to ensure we invest in a solution that fixes the problem correctly.”

The project was originally planned for this year, but will instead begin in May of 2026 after a contract is awarded in April. The cost of dredging is around $1.7 million.

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The city’s remaining 2025 budget is just under $81,000. The project would also need approximately 100 days to complete. The high cost and late start date made moving forward with the work impossible.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com