Saying it couldn’t wait for the planned construction of a regional sewage treatment system on Vancouver Island, dairy co-operative Agropur has put up $3.7 million for in-house treatment of its Victoria plant’s wastes.
Agropur’s Island Farms milk plant, which processes about 60 million litres of milk per year, has put the investment toward a dissolved air filtration (DFA) treatment system for its dairy production effluent.
“Although a regional sewage treatment system would have addressed our plants’ outflow requirements, we preferred not to wait any longer as there was too much uncertainty about the timelines,” Mike Dick, vice-president for Agropur’s Western Canada (Natrel) division, said in a release Tuesday.
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Dick said the Quebec-based parent “knew how important it was to show proof of good environmental stewardship.”
The system was put in place “in order to meet the (Victoria) Capital Region’s sewage treatment requirements,” and make sure the company’s production byproducts “are no longer discharged into the sewers,” Agropur said.
“Although the financial investment in the (DFA) treatment system is significant, it was well worth it and I’m pleased with the co-operation and creative work that took place with the (Victoria Capital Region District, or CRD) to ensure that 100 per cent of the dairy production effluents are now treated and neutralized,” Dick said.
Island Farms, whose roots in B.C. date back to 1944 as a separate dairy farmers’ co-op, is now one of a stable of Agropur-owned brands that includes Quebon, Oka, Sealtest, Natrel and Yoplait.
