Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine September 2009

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:13 PM

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:02 PM

FEATURES

ES&E invites articles (approx. 2,000 words) onwater, wastewater, hazardous waste treatment andother environmental protection topics. If you are in-terested in submitting an article for considerationin our print and digital editions, please contactSteve Davey at [email protected]. Please notethat Environmental Science & Engineering Publi-cations Inc. reserves the right to edit all text andgraphic submissions without notice.

DEPARTMENTS

Product Showcase . . . . . 69-73

Environmental News . . . 75-80

Professional Cards . . . . . .75-80

Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

ISSN-0835-605XSeptember 2009Vol. 22 No. 4Vol. 22 No. 4Issued September 2009

7 Were Halifax officials unfairly criticized over wastewater treatment plant failure? - Editorial comment by Steve Davey

10 Temporary pumping system keeps L’Assomption’s water supply system operational during flood

12 Treating sewage in rural Alberta with fixed-film bioreactor technology

14 Managing restaurant kitchen grease vital to reducing sewer blockages

16 Automation of septage receiving at a wastewater treatment plant can save resources

19 OPCEA concerned about FCM Resolution

20 Where, when, why and how to employ decentralized wastewater treatment

24 Tree nursery saves $140K over five years by using biosolids for fertilizer

26 Tackling seasonal taste and odour events in drinking water

32 Miramichi implements advanced water meter infrastructure system

35 Understanding SCADA system vulnerability in water utilities

36 Farm site closure achieved within one year

38 Is a Comprehensive Certificate of Approval the way to go?

42 New AWWARF study on nitrogenous drinking water disinfection by-products

44 Evaluating peracetic acid for wastewater disinfection

48 Author of “Healthy Waters” to open WEFTEC.09

50 How to remove perfluorinated acids from water and wastewater streams

53 Water For People’s World Water Corp is making a difference

54 Energy from biogas now even more economically attractive

56 Reusing 10 year old vortex stormwater separator saves over $75K

58 Impending shortage of cheap phosphorus could be financial boon to wastewater treatment plants

62 Water supply management options evaluated for Maui

66 Conserving water by using a closed loop recycling system

82 Elegant swimming contrasts with toxicity of consumerism - Editorial comment by Tom Davey

Page 10Page 10 Page 57Page 57

Contents

Page 50Page 50

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:02 PM

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:13 PM

September 2009 | 7www.esemag.com

mation such as:• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)• Steps Underway • Photos of Flooded Plant• Beach Openings• Transition to Halifax Water• Dartmouth and Herring Cove WWTFs • Spring Cleaning• Technical Presentation • Misconceptions• Harbour Solutions Project • Halifax WWTF Project Update• Finding Truth, Weighing Consequences - an article by Mayor Peter Kelly

Untreated sewage has been flowinginto Halifax Harbour since January 2009when the $54-million sewage treatmentplant malfunctioned. More recently, thesituation worsened after screens that pre-vent solids from entering the harbourwere removed from the sewer outfalls toprevent damage from excessive buildup.

The Halifax sewage treatment plant,which became operational in February2008, is not expected to be back in op-eration until next spring.

What went wrong?The treatment plant is built around an

85-foot-deep "wet well". A large tunnelcarries Halifax's sewage to the bottom ofthe well. Four submersible pumps (anda fifth backup) at the bottom of the welllift sewage up to the treatment equip-ment on the main floor.

According to an article by Tim Bous-quet of Halifax’s The Coast newspaper,a series of cascading mechanical and

While attending the 5thNational Conference onBiosolids held recently inNiagara Falls, I discussed

the ongoing water quality problems inHalifax Harbour, due to the failure of theCity’s wastewater treatment plant back inJanuary.

Later, I searched for information onthe Internet and came across several re-ports and articles criticizing Halifax’smayor and council for being secretive onthis issue. In fact, in an article on theHalifax Regional Municipality’s website,Mayor Peter Kelly stated: “The challengepresented by the shutdown of the HalifaxWastewater Treatment Facility has beenparticularly difficult for me because itchallenges me to weigh what I say pub-licly, against the possibility of exposingyou, the taxpayers of HRM, to potentiallysignificant liability.”

In an age of high public sensitivitiesand mistrust about many environmentalissues, easy access to the facts of such animportant event is vital. I recall in theearly 1980s, when the Ontario Ministry ofthe Environment was severely criticizedby the public, due to perceived communi-cation failures regarding the discovery ofwater well contamination in Stouffville.

In that issue as well, scientific factswere obscured by media impatience andpublic outcry.

However, if you take the time to lookover the Halifax Regional Municipal-ity’s web pages on the wastewater plantfailure, you will find a wealth of infor-

electrical problems occurred, beginningwith power failure throughout the northend of Halifax. When power was lost atthe plant, the pumps stopped and a largegate automatically closed the tunnel,stopping influent flow to the wet well.

Then, according to procedure, an op-erator started the plant’s two backupelectrical generators, opened the gateand turned the four pumps back on.However, the electrical load from thepumps was not evenly shared by the twobackup generators. One generator car-ried the load for three pumps, while thesecond carried the load for only one. Thegenerator carrying the three pumpsoverloaded and shut itself down, leavingjust one pump operating.

This lone pump was not able to handlethe incoming flow, so to stop sewage fromoverflowing the wet well, the gate neededto again be closed over the tunnel. How-ever, the mechanism for lowering the gatewas also powered by the overloaded gen-erator, which had shut down, and so it did-n't work. The plant has a switch designedto shift the gate's electrical load to the sec-ond generator, but it failed to operateproperly. As a result, the gate remainedslightly open, and sewage continued toflow into the wet well.

The pump mechanisms and motorsare in watertight casings, so they weren'tin any danger from the rising sewage.However, they are powered by cablesleading from electrical junction boxesplaced just 10 feet above them, which

Were Halifax officials unfairly criticized over wastewater treatment plant failure?

continued overleaf...

Comment by Steve Davey

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:03 PM

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine8 | September 2009

Editor and Publisher STEVE DAVEYE-mail: [email protected]

Senior Consulting Editor TOM DAVEY

Sales Director PENNY DAVEYE-mail: [email protected]

Sales Representative DENISE SIMPSONE-mail: [email protected]

Accounting SANDRA DAVEYE-mail: [email protected]

Circulation Manager DARLANN PASSFIELDE-mail: [email protected]

Production Manager CHRIS MAC DONALDE-mail: [email protected]

Technical Advisory Board

Jim BishopStantec Consulting Ltd., Ontario

Bill Borlase, P.Eng.City of Winnipeg, Manitoba

George V. Crawford, P.Eng., M.A.Sc.CH2M HILL, Ontario

Bill DeAngelis, P.Eng.Associated Engineering, Ontario

Marie MeunierJohn Meunier Inc., Québec

Peter J. PaineEnvironment Canada

Environmental Science & Engineering is a bi-monthlybusiness publication of Environmental Science & Engi-neering Publications Inc. An all Canadian publication,ES&E provides authoritative editorial coverage ofCanada's municipal and industrial environmental controlsystems and drinking water treatment and distribution.

Readers include consulting engineers, industrial plantmanagers and engineers, key municipal, provincial andfederal environmental officials, water and wastewaterplant operators and contractors.

Information contained in ES&E has been compiled fromsources believed to be correct. ES&E cannot be respon-sible for the accuracy of articles or other editorial matter.Articles in this magazine are intended to provide infor-mation rather than give legal or other professional advice.Articles being submitted for review should be e-mailedto [email protected].

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are not water tight. When rising sewagereached the junction boxes, it flowedinto them, down the electrical conduitsand into the pump casings, shorting outeach of the pump motors, including themotor running the lone working pump.

With no working pumps and the tun-nel gate open, sewage continued to flowinto the wet well, rising all the way to theceiling of the plant's basement. Much ofthe plant's equipment, including theelectrical control room and boilers, wasin the basement and, therefore, com-pletely immersed in sewage.

According to the article, an officialwith the Halifax Water Commission saysthat they will have to completely rebuildthe electrical control room, which is onereason the plant restart is taking so long.

An investigation has found that nooperator intervention could have stoppedthe breakdown.

Five new pumps have been ordered ata cost of $2 million. The cost will becovered by insurance. Also, a forensicaudit has been commissioned to re-design the plant to guard against futureshutdowns of this nature.

We have newspapers, magazines,radio and TV news and an increasingnumber of electronic media platforms.Keeping the public and the media up todate should be a simple affair. But situa-tions like the Halifax wastewater plantfailure are often complicated, technical,and potentially litigious in nature. Themedia needs to be provided with the nec-essary facts in a timely and comprehen-sive manner, so they can effectivelydisseminate factual, comprehensive, andup to date information to their audiences.

Cultivating relationships with journal-ists, while maintaining a comprehensivelist of all forms of media outlets, are twofunctions that communications depart-ments everywhere should make a priority.Organizations should not depend on theirown web sites to satisfy media and publicthirst for knowledge and the truth.

Steve Davey is Editor of

EnvironmentalScience &

Engineering Magazine

Comment by Steve Davey

The Story of Brownfields& Smart Growth in Kingston Ontario

By Pamela Welbourn, HarryCleghorn, Joseph Davis, Steven Rose.

This book has been designed to besuitable for the general reader butmore detailed references are includedto permit its use for research as well.The case studies tend to illustrate thevaried perspectives of different individ-uals on these complex issues, themany approaches to the developmentof brownfields, the types of problemsencountered in the process, both technical and social, and the diverseoutcomes that are possible.

Chapters 1-5, set the general contextand deal with history, definitions, science including toxicological issues,legal and regulatory matters, and tech-nical aspects of brownfields. Chapters6-10 are based on the Kingston experi-ence and include case studies withtechnical, political and social dimen-sions relevant to brownfields develop-ment both in Kingston and otherjurisdictions. Finally, in Chapters 11-13,the scope has been broadened to in-clude case studies from other parts ofOntario and elsewhere in Canada.

In one sense every case is unique, yetthere are also items in common amongthe cases. Although limited in number,the selected cases in Chapters 11 and12, i.e., outside Kingston, are intendedto be illustrative, for comparison andcontrast with those for the City ofKingston, while highlighting the varietyof approaches and techniques for redevelopment. The final chapter provides conclusions and integrationthrough lessons learned.

Published by Classroom Complete Press. Visitwww.classroomcompletepress.com

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:03 PM

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:03 PM


Water Supply

stored in its reservoirs. The level ofstored water dropped very rapidly, be-cause of strong early hour demand andthe plugging of the intake. This causedcontinuous decreases in system pressurefrom 80 lbs to 70, 60, and 50 lbs, ulti-

mately ending at 40 psi, which is theminimum threshold needed to protectthe drinking water distribution network.

However, at no time was there any in-terruption in the water supply, and noboil advisory had to be issued.

Temporary pumping system keeps water plantoperational during flood

1150 PFM flotation module and the BS 2550 Flygt pump in the process of beinginstalled.

During a recent flood event, inQuébec, blockage of the rawwater intake and conduit forthe town of L’Assomption’s

Jean-Perreault Water Treatment Plant re-quired emergency installation of a tem-porary pumping system.

In late April 2008, the L’AssomptionRiver was rising and carrying largeamounts of debris, including sand, gravel,and tree branches that slowed down boththe uptake of water and the pumping sta-tion that feeds the water treatment centrethrough a conduit supplying raw water.Early one morning, the raw water intakebecame completely obstructed and thewater treatment plant could no longermaintain optimal output.

The emergency planWater treatment plant staff, assisted

by Yvon Harnois of MSC Réhabilita-tion, worked to unblock the intake andconduit. During this time, the watertreatment plant supplied the town’s dis-tribution system with treated water

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Water Supply

The solutionPrior to this emergency situation, Mr.

Sauvageau, the plant manager, had beenin touch with Mouloud Aouaz, of ITTWater &Wastewater, to discuss a tempo-rary pumping system capable of bypass-ing the water intake. The choice was afloating pumping system, composed ofan 88 hp Flygt BS 2250 pump, with a432 impeller, which could pump waterout of the river at a rate of 5,000 gpm.The pump would be mounted on a PFM1150 flotation module and connected ei-ther to the raw water reservoir or to theraw water outlet pipes, with Kwik-Lokrapid-attachment hardware.

While waiting for the arrival of thetemporary pumping system, prepara-tions were made for its installation, andsome alternative activities were under-taken by the plant manager in collabo-ration with town officials. A crane wasmobilized to lower the pump into theriver, and appeals were made to the mu-nicipality of St-Sulpice and the town ofRepentigny with regard to the openingand closing of their conduits.

At the same time, Mr. Sauvageau in-formed the fire department that the sit-uation was getting worse. Fire pumptrucks would be needed to refill the rawwater tank at the pumping station, inorder to keep water reserves from get-ting any lower and to maintain them atan acceptable level.

Also, police issued a public warningabout watering restrictions and the needto minimize the use of drinking water.

The temporary pumping system wasoperational at about 6:00 p.m., with thepump installed in the river and ready toreplace the raw water pressure pumps inthe event that the 42'' water supply con-duit remained blocked by sand or othertypes of debris.

On Thursday, April 24, 2008, at10:45 p.m., Mr. Sauvageau received acall from the plant informing him thatthe raw water conduit was once againblocked. He went to the site, with plantoperator Luc Beauchemin, to try to un-block the intake, but they were unsuc-cessful. After determining that the rawwater pump was buried under 15 feet ofsand and gravel, the ITT W&WWpumping system was connected to theraw water supply conduit and began to

feed the plant. This made it possible forthe plant to continue normal operationsuntil the intake and conduit were even-tually cleaned out and made fully oper-ational.

During the bypass operation, thetown’s drinking water supply continuedto be of excellent quality, meeting Amer-ican Water Works Association standards.

For more information, visit www.ittwww.ca

Plugged water intake.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:14 PM


Wastewater Treatment

by extensive testing results, and the con-sulting firm was able to get the approvalrequired to begin construction of thewastewater system.

Biological treatment systemThe Bionest system is an advanced

generation of on-site biological waste-water treatment systems. The processconsists of a high-retention-time, sub-merged, fixed-film bioreactor followingprimary sedimentation such as a conven-tional septic tank. The biomass developsand firmly attaches to a ribbon-shapedsynthetic media.

The media occupies only 2% of thetank volume to avoid premature clog-ging, but offers close to 200 m² per cubicmetre of tank volume. With its high bio-mass development, the unit performs ex-tremely well in cold-water applicationslike those experienced in many Cana-dian communities during winter.

The media is placed across the entirevolume of a prefabricated or built-in-place reservoir divided into two sections.In the first section, which corresponds toapproximately two-thirds of the volume,aeration is provided by means of finebubble diffusers fed by multiple linear-type air pumps. Biochemical oxygen de-mand (BOD) reduction and ammoniatransformation take place in that section.The last section is not aerated, yet is aer-obic. It allows for non-turbulent condi-tions where further nitrification occurs aswell as biosolids filtration and oxidation.

Depending on the desired quality, thebioreactor offers anywhere from 36 to 48hours of retention time. This extendedperiod makes a significant difference inthe robustness of the process and its ca-pacity to sustain peak flows and higher

Alberta faces huge environ-mental challenges in sewagetreatment as fast-growingcommunities extend their

population in numerous new residentialclusters. Populated areas of the provincehave only a few rivers allowing for suffi-cient dilution of treated wastewater, andthese rivers are often used as the maindrinking water sources for cities andsmaller municipalities along their shores.

The provincial environment and mu-nicipal affairs ministries legitimately tryto elevate the wastewater treatment stan-dards and limit surface discharge in aneffort to protect these water bodies.Also, in many areas, Alberta’s soil ispoor for water infiltration.

Quarry Land developers owns someland in Leduc County that will becomeCountry Lakes Estates. Leduc County isstrategically located near Edmonton. In2007, the developer had already sold thefirst lots and construction was imminent,but the go-ahead from Alberta Environ-ment had not yet been received and theproposed wastewater management planwas still under close analysis. Occupa-tion of new houses was facing potentialdelays.

Wildcat Water Technologies, a waterand wastewater solutions provider, basedin Cochrane, Alberta, had recently ac-cepted the distribution of a new Canadian-approved technology, the BionestTM

system. The land developer was lookingfor a simple technology, locally supportedby experts capable of assisting in the de-sign, but most importantly providing serv-ice for operation and maintenance.

This new technology was presentedto Alberta Environment, accompanied

organic loadings. It also permits the re-moval of up to 99% of fecal coliformbacteria. Longer retention time, com-bined with the media density and its ran-dom pattern in the tank, allows the unitto filter the biosolids produced in theprocess and oxidize most of them, re-sulting in less frequent maintenance andno need for an external secondary set-tling tank.

A distinctive characteristic of theBionest system is the presence of a re-circulation loop permanently circulatingtreated water from the bioreactor outletzone back to the primary treatment tankor, in the case of Country Lake Estates,in an anoxic basin ahead of the bioreac-tor. This recirculation has many advan-tages, such as partial de-nitrification (upto 75%) and higher overall performance.

The concept designed by the consult-ant for Country Lake Estates was thateach house should be equipped with anindividual septic tank, an effluent filterand a sewage pump discharging into thecollection system bringing the primaryeffluent to the treatment site. The designflow rate at maximum occupancy of the15 lots has been established at 23 m³/day.The unit was entirely assembled in a sin-gle 57-m³ custom-fabricated fibreglasstank supplied by Focus Industries of St-Albert, Alberta.

The tank is divided into three sec-tions. The first section of 11 m³ is theanoxic tank where the primary sewageenters the unit and is mixed with thetreated water that is circulating from thebioreactor outlet zone. The water travelsto another section — the two-thirds aer-ated portion (31 m³) — of the bioreactorand flows across the dividing wall to thelast one-third section (15 m³) of thebioreactor.

A small shed houses both the develop-ment’s potable water and wastewater con-trols and equipment. Five small 250Wlinear air pumps provide aeration. Use ofseveral air pumps gives the desired redun-dancy and keeps power consumption low.The final effluent is discharged to a sandmound.

Wildcat Water Technologies Ltd. and

Treating sewage with fixed-film bioreactor technology By Dominic Mercier and David Whitehead

Parameter BionestTM effluent concentration

BOD5 2 mg/LTSS 4 mg/lFecal Coliforms < 200 UFC/100 mlNH4 (ammonia) < 1 mg/LTKN 2 mg/LTotal Nitrogen 16 mg/L

Table 1. Results of monitoring program at Country Lake Estates.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:03 PM



Bionest Inc. agreed to carry out a six-month performance monitoring programto submit to Alberta Environment. Table1 presents the results of the monitoringprogram, performed by an independentlaboratory.

The quality of the effluent meets ad-vanced secondary levels in a simple sin-gle treatment unit, and even providesextensive disinfection. Results showedammonia concentration of less than 1mg/L, which means total nitrification of

the influent ammonia nitrogen.Maintenance of the Bionest commer-

cial units requires four visits per year forvisual inspection of components, datagathering and cleaning the air pump in-take filters. Biosolids accumulation inthe bioreactor is slow and in most casesthe units do not need to be pumped outbefore five to eight years.

Bionest was the first technology tosuccessfully complete the Quebec BNQcertification standard for wastewatersystems, which has now become the in-dustry reference in terms of severity oftesting conditions and representation ofreal Canadian climatic conditions. Theunit has also been certified by NSF inthe United States and by CSTB inFrance; it has also been reviewed andendorsed by ETV Canada under the En-vironmental Technology VerificationProgram.

Dominic Mercier, Eng. M.A.Sc., is with Bionest Inc. David Whitehead iswith Wildcat Water Technologies Ltd.

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:14 PM


Grease Collection

Managing restaurant kitchen grease vital for reducing sewer blockages By Glenn Martin

corrosion in grease traps, which makesthem vulnerable to leaking.

Best kitchen practicesThe key factor in maintaining a clean

kitchen, drains and grease trap is stafftraining and procedures. With today's en-vironmental standards and green initia-tives, kitchen methods and proceduresmust continually evolve.

A standard grease trap should bechecked and cleaned monthly to ensureproper performance. Odours and drainageproblems are clear signs that a trap is fullor not functioning correctly. The most ob-vious problem is drain backups, which aretypically caused by food solids combinedwith grease blockages in the pipes.

Cleaning and pumping the greasetrap is a hazardous job best done by a li-censed plumber.

All dishes and kitchen utensils shouldbe wiped off before being put into thedishwasher. The faucet should not beused as a broom. Liquid waste (gravy,syrups, batter) should be poured into thefood-recycling bin. Dishwashers claimthis slows down their work, but the costof having a plumber in to fix the block-age far outweighs the time taken to wipeoff the dishes.

Similarly, countertops and food prepa-ration areas must be wiped thoroughlyand all food solids and liquid wastedumped into the food-recycling bin.

When a public works em-ployee was asked if he hadseen many clogs causedby restaurant grease while

he was working on city pipes and sewers,he replied: “Yes, at every restaurant.”

A dishwasher at an established restau-rant chain bragged that their grease traphad not been opened in years. Whenasked why, he said: “Why would I wantto open that grease trap thing? The stinkwould be overwhelming.”

Standard grease trap technology haschanged little in the last 100 years. Tra-ditional grease collection systems arepartly responsible for contaminating ourwater, drains, sewers and land. Fats, oilsand grease (FOG) are the biggest man-made cause of sewer blockages.

Traditional grease traps collect only85% of the grease from wastewater.When they do not have regular main-tenance, 40-60% of the grease bypassesthe traps. A grease trap at full capacityallows 100% of the fat, oil and grease toenter the drain and go directly into thesewer or septic system.

On average, a small restaurant has atraditional grease trap with a 50-poundgrease capacity. If the trap is pumped outa minimum of four times per year, then200 lbs of grease waste (brown grease)per year per restaurant are deposited intolandfill sites. Brown grease also causes

Flour is another major cause of drainblockages – remember that the simplestglue is made from a paste of flour andwater!

Restaurant mops and buckets alsocontain food solids as well as grease. An-other common cause of grease trap anddrain clogging is the dumping of mopbuckets down the drain. Never pour mopwater or other wastewater onto pavementor into ditches.

Drain and grease trap proceduresTrain kitchen staff on the location, pur-

pose, function and proper maintenance ofgrease traps on a quarterly basis. Ensurethat grease trap maintenance is done on aregular schedule and is written into poli-cies and procedures.

Grease trap and interceptor pump-outschedules should be established andstrictly followed. A standard grease trapshould be pumped out monthly. Mostrestaurants do not follow this timetable;typically they will maintain the greasetrap when the odours become unbearableor a drain blockage occurs. The odouris a sign that the grease trap is full;there is no visible means of viewing theamount of grease in the trap.

The most common reason to replacea grease trap is leakage.

Continuously running hot water andapplying drain cleaning products such asDrano are band-aid solutions to unclog-ging drains. The heated, liquefied greasewill be flushed down into the sewer orseptic system. While hot flushing maydivert the need for pumping, it will cre-ate a blockage downstream, causing thegrease trap to overflow.

Cities have begun monitoring thegrease flows from restaurants and foodprocessing facilities, enforcing bylawswith fines ranging from $5,000 to$50,000. This may lead to a restaurantbeing closed until the situation is recti-fied, and the publicity from a city greasebylaw infraction is not good for business.

Best practicesTo summarize the practices that a

restaurant should follow:1. Always deposit waste vegetable oil orcooking grease into the food-recyclingbin.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:04 PM


Wastewater

Automated septage receiving system can save a WWTP resources and money

By Steve Guzelak

ging system must be specified separatelyfrom the mechanical receiving stations.After all, only a system that has thesefeatures can deliver these benefits.

To review what is available in regardsto the septage receiving loggers, the sys-tem can be broken down into two parts:the hardware and the software.

HardwareLooking at the hardware, the first

piece of equipment is an automated gatevalve. Plant standard makes sense here.The next is the flow meter. A magneticflow meter with high accuracy, requiringno straight runs, is the best choice here.With some meters, when the specifiedstraight runs are not met, accuracy suf-fers. Given that this system is used forbilling purposes, the higher the accuracythe better – at a reasonable cost.

Difficulties with straight runs arecompounded by the nature of offloadingseptage through a flexible hose threeinches in diameter or more, and the lim-ited amount of real estate in most plants.A meter requiring no straight runs, yetachieving its stated high accuracy of be-tween +/- 0.2% to +/- 0.5%, solves theseproblems. Building beyond the meterdepends on the system chosen. Somesystems end at the meter. Other systemscan offer flexibility to integrate and add

Automation of septage receiv-ing in a wastewater treatmentplant can save resources,time, money, add accounta-

bility, control, tractability, and minimizedown times.

First we have to understand the capa-bilities of the non-mechanical side ofseptage receiving to better understand thegains that it offers.

Some septage receiving loggers arefully automated not only for the trucksthat interface with a key fob, or swipecard, but they can also log vital informa-tion. The loggers can record quantities,time, percent solids, pH levels, temper-ature, and other information. They cansend out alarms for occurrences such asscreening equipment failures, or fullholding tanks. The software can be standalone, or intergrated with the existingsystem for fully automated billing, andinformation can be traced online by theplant and the customer.

The benefits to a well thought out andproven system are seen by the customerand treatment plant alike. The customerno longer has to go to city hall to pur-chase tickets to dump, or worry aboutlosing them, or finding an operator tohand them in to. Also a tanker can off-load small amounts at a time withoutpaying the full price, which gives themthe flexibility to optimize their operation.

For the municipality, city, town, orplant, the benefits are multiple. A fullyautomated system saves manpower atthe plant, by receiving the septage andlogging vital information for traceability,report generating, and efficiency studies.At the administrative offices, manuallogging of information is eliminated,thus greatly reducing the potential forerrors, and the strain on personnel time.

Benefits come to the accounting per-sonnel by fully automating the billingprocess. There is also the capability oftiered billing based on percent solids,better reflecting the associated costs,and, as a result, adding revenue.

To utilize the benefits of an auto-mated septage receiving system, the log-

onto the system over time, since the in-puts and software readily accept addi-tional points of information.

Adding an in-line suspended solidsmeter will give a reading of percent solidsof each offload. With this information,these systems can now take this a stepfurther by charging according to the typeof waste delivered. Waste that is higher insolids content requires more treatment,incorporating higher processing costs. Atiered scale can be programmed in forbilling that would charge more for moresolids, and less for less solids.

Another available and useful additionwould be the integration and measure-ment of pH levels. Excessively high orlow pH can have an adverse effect on thebiological process of the plant itself.These levels can be logged and can aidin tracing the source. This option alsoprovides the flexibility of disallowingthe dumping of waste with extreme pHlevels in too large quantities to preventan upset condition in the process. Alter-natively a log of the pH levels can begenerated, and send an alert to both thetreatment plant, and to the company andperson offloading.

Other sensors and information can beadded such as temperature and sam-


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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:04 PM

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presses one button to accept the informa-tion on the screen, hooks up the hose andoffloads. The system will log quantitiesand any other information if it is soequipped.

Again, if so equipped, the flow rate,solids content and pH levels are dis-played on the screen as the operator off-loads. The septage is received, and theoperator is free to leave. Internally, thesystem then automatically uses the infor-mation to compile a bill.

But, say the offloading station is in aremote area, away from the centralizedadministrative location. No problem -the septage receiving unit communicates

via GSM/GPRS (global system for mo-bile communications/general packetradio service), as if it was next door.

Another potential problem may ariseif the operator is offloading in an un-manned facility, and the screening clogs,the grinder backs up, or the holding tankfills. In this case the system will identifythese conditions via high level alarms,and it will be disabled after the particularoffload is finished. SMS (short messageservice) alerts are automatically sent tonotify the appropriate personnel of thesituation via mobile phone, page, orother modes, so that the situation can berectified. This helps reduce downtimeand avoids overfills.

The customer and plant personnel canthen log online with a password, and ac-cess the information. For the customer,the information shows the amount oftimes the site was visited, and the


pling, depending on the requirements ofeach customer.

SoftwareSoftware makes up the majority of

the capabilities of a well-run automatedsystem, if it is stable and proven. Frus-tration with unstable software can beavoided. For example, the Aysix septagereceiving system uses JRP’s event suitesoftware because of its internationallyproven capabilities and stability. In Eng-land, this software has been refined andproven for over seven years, and is nowused in 80% of all septage receiving sys-tems there.

A good system will integrate intolocal SCADA controls, Hardwired, Se-rial MODBUS, Fieldbus, or any otherprotocol or system. The software capa-bilities reach beyond logging informa-tion, which can then be used in reducingoperating costs, identifying efficiencyimprovements, and satisfying presentand future legislative reporting, or audittrails.

A basic system can allow flexibilityto change and grow to meet require-ments that will develop. This is becausea basic system is loaded with all the soft-ware features of a fully-featured system.For example, a septage receiving stationmay have a single discharge line. As de-mand grows, additional lines can beadded to the existing system, and theycan be used simultaneously. More de-mand is still needed? Additional linescan be added, as can additional controls,such as traffic lights and sounders, allcontrolled by the same system. If autosampling is required, this too can easilybe integrated.

The need to operate seamlessly withthe plant’s existing tanks, screens, andgrinders, and to monitor, control andoverride these systems, is also a reality,regardless of their type or make.

Looking at the septage reception op-eration will reveal other capabilities ofavailable systems. A truck pulls up to theoffloading area. Depending on the choiceof set up, the operator will then use thekeypad, or a RFID (radio frequency iden-tification) non-contact key fob, or card, toidentify the company and truck number;the date and time will be logged. (Thesesystems also have the capability to disableoffloading after hours, if needed.)

After swiping, the operator simply

amounts charged. For each transactionthe system shows company name, timeand date, transaction number, truck num-ber, treatment location visited, time dura-tion of discharge, volume discharged,suspended solids content, sludge charges,pH levels, sample number, and totalamount charged.

The treatment plant/municipality canintegrate this information with their ex-isting systems to review billing, conductrevenue analysis and monitoring, reviewand analyze maintenance records andschedules, review individual contractors,satisfy any existing and likely future leg-islative reporting, and audit trails as wellas reporting on content traceability ofseptage receiving.

When the system is purchased thereare generally two options for the web por-tal: hosted, or fully purchased. With thehosted site, the supplier takes care of post-ing the software on the internet, with aone-off configuration charge and monthlyfees. The benefit to the hosted option isthat the customer does not need softwarespecialists or the hardware, nor is there alicensing fee.

With the other option the customerpurchases the license and installs thesystem software on their infrastructure,without any monthly fees. In addition toproviding the hardware and software, areputable supplier should also be able toprovide installation, support services,service contracts for hardware, and soft-ware, after-hours telephone support, andpreventative maintenance and calibra-tion services.

A well-designed septage receivingsystem will run on a proven, stable plat-form, provide flexibility for growth, andwill save a municipality time, resourcesand money. But thought has to be givento the septage receiving system, sepa-rately from the mechanical screens andgrinders, in regards to its capabilitiesand reliability. Packages have been soldwhere the customer had to repurchasethe septage receiver, due to limitationsand instability.

The solutions for reliable and capableseptic reception are here, and they cangrow as the demands change.

Steve Guzelak is with Cancoppas Limited. For more information, E-mail:

[email protected]

Wastewater

User friendly key fob recognition.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:04 PM


the capacity, to fill the approximately sixbillion dollar annual void that would becreated, if US-made wastewater andwater infrastructure products are nolonger purchased. Additionally, OPCEAfears many member companies may beforced to lay off workers, or even closedown operations, if they cannot sell Amer-ican-made products on Canadian munici-pal infrastructure projects. OPCEA

In a recent survey, less than one inthree member companies of the On-tario Pollution Control EquipmentAssociation, (OPCEA) supported

the Federation of Canadian Municipalities(FCM) “Fair Trade” Resolution. This res-olution encourages Canadian municipali-ties to adopt procurement policies aimedat excluding the use of products in Cana-dian infrastructure projects, which are im-ported from countries that do not allowfree and unfettered access to Canadianmade products. The FCM resolution wascrafted in response to the “Buy American”provisions contained in the American Re-covery and Re-investment Act (ARRA),and was intended to support Canadianmanufacturers.

OPCEA believes both the “BuyAmerican” provisions of the ARRA andthe retaliatory FCM resolution, are con-trary to the provisions contained in theNorth American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), which the association supports.

OPCEA is comprised of companiesthat manufacture wastewater treatmentequipment in Ontario, and companies thatsell, or distribute wastewater treatmentequipment in Ontario, from companiesbased in foreign countries, including theUnited States. While the association rec-ognizes the need to support free access tothe US market for its Canadian manufac-turing members, it also supports membercompanies that sell American productsinto the Ontario market. It is the opinionof the association, that the two markets areinextricably linked, and that any policythat restricts market access in either direc-tion, is counter-productive, and ultimatelywill negatively affect Canadians.

While the proponents of the FCM res-olution claim that equipment that is cur-rently sourced in the US can be replacedwith products from other countries, ac-cording to OPCEA, Canada does not havefree trade agreements with those coun-tries. There will be a heavy price penaltyinvolved in sourcing equipment from non-NAFTA countries, due to countervailingduties and higher shipping costs. Thosecosts will be borne by municipalities, andultimately by taxpayers.

Another reality is that Canadianwastewater equipment manufacturershave neither the range of products, nor

Business

OPCEA concerned about FCM Resolutionbelieves that this issue should be ad-dressed and resolved at the federal gov-ernment and provincial/state governmentlevels, and not at the municipal level. Itencourages the FCM to step back from itsconfrontational stance, and allow bilateralnegotiations to progress to a mutually sat-isfactory conclusion, serving both Amer-ican and Canadian interests.

E-mail: [email protected]

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:14 PM


utes of the centralized wastewater system.Centralizing services results in the bene-fits of economy of scale. When this ap-proach is taken with wastewater treatmentneeds, a municipality gains the advantageof having fewer treatment systems tomanage, lower labour costs and a per-ceived reduced cost of operation.

Larger systems often have redundantcomponent parts that ensure reliabilityand performance. It is also common tohave higher levels of treatment (tertiary)at larger wastewater plants. Bulk deliv-ery of chemicals and replacement partslowers the unit costs of these products.Operations are concentrated in one fa-cility where supervision, training, qual-ity control, backup, laboratory servicesand other important functions can behoused and integrated into the facility.

Of particular importance in Canadais the large amount of treated effluentfrom centralized wastewater systemsthat can be made available for reuse inmajor industrial operations.

Many factors influence thedecisions of engineers,planners, developers andmunicipal officials as

they select wastewater servicing op-tions. Most communities only considercentralized “big pipe” solutions, butconcerns about the environmental sus-tainability of these regional sewer sys-tems make decentralized wastewatertechnologies and designs an appealingalternative when the need to enhancethe performance of aging centralized in-frastructure arises.

Decentralized systems perform well,assuring future water supplies andhealthy ecosystems, and an increasingnumber of them are being installed aseconomic, environmental, social andpolitical considerations are changing theopinions of decision-makers. The alter-native “cluster system” approaches offera high-value decentralized option forwastewater servicing.

First, let’s consider the positive attrib-

Finally, centralized systems rely onhigher-density development to keep col-lection costs down and allow for indus-trial wastewater discharges to be properlymanaged. Large centralized wastewatersystems should be used to treat certain in-dustrial process wastewaters.

However, some of the perceived ben-efits of large centralized wastewatersystems are proving to be false. Theseinclude the notion that they provide en-vironmental benefits over smaller de-centralized systems. This is simply nottrue, as will be explained below.

Another misconception is that theunderlying economic basis of central-ization makes it less expensive. This isnot always true, particularly when dis-tance becomes a larger factor, wheretreatment standards are strict, or whenthe receiving water is impaired.

Efficiencies provided by commonmanagement of decentralized waste-water systems can be just as cost-effec-tive as operating a large system. When

WWhheenn,, wwhheerree,, wwhhyy aanndd hhooww ttoo eemmppllooyy ddeecceennttrraalliizzeedd wwaasstteewwaatteerr ttrreeaattmmeenntt -- PPaarrtt oonneeBy Curtis J. Sparks and Ryan Devlin

Lakeside cluster development at Big Sandy Lodge, McGregor, Minnesota.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:04 PM



these factors are present, the economicsare often shifted towards decentralizedwastewater options.

A major concern when considering acentralized wastewater treatment systemlies in the impact on the receiving envi-ronment. In almost every case, central-ized wastewater systems rely on surfacewater discharge. The receiving streammust be of sufficient quality and quan-tity to “dilute the treated wastewater” sothe receiving streams are protected. Reg-ulatory agencies establish minimumwater quality standards that must be metto protect beneficial use. This translatesinto average and maximum effluent lim-itations expressed in loading and con-centration.

The lower the stream flow and thehigher the beneficial use of the receiv-ing stream, the more stringent the efflu-ent water quality limits will be. AcrossNorth America, regulatory agencieshave established or will be establishinglimitations called Total Maximum DailyLoad (TMDL). This freezes the massloading of each critical pollutant to aspecific numerical limit. When the load

limits are reached, the only way that ad-ditional wastewater can be processed isby increasing the level of treatment, re-ducing the flow by reuse, or decentral-izing the system.

Additional surface water dischargeconcerns such as nutrient enrichmentand hypoxia, chronic and acute toxicity,and ecological impairment by endocrinedisrupters need to be considered as well.As scientific data continues to show thenumber of environmental impacts thatneed to be mitigated with centralizedsystems, large centralized wastewatertreatment systems will always be furtherlimited by more stringent pollution con-trol requirements.

When to decentralize treatmentDecentralized treatment and disposal

systems are used where the wastewatersource is domestic wastewater fromhomes and/or commercial and indus-trial facilities with no incompatible in-dustrial process water requirements.

Prior to a community’s request forapproval of a decentralized project, it isimportant to have researched the op-tions available based on the specific

needs of the community and to havesolid wastewater treatment policies andprocedures in place. This is, however,not the common practice.

Developers needing wastewater serv-ices to develop a particular piece of landmost often initiate the process of consid-ering and gaining approval for a decen-tralized system. These factors include themost reasonable use of a piece of prop-erty, the layout of the development as acluster community, and the need for in-creased density on a unique parcel ofland.

Communities outside the centralizedpipe system lose a great deal of landand tax base and have increased servic-ing costs due to large lot development.Efficient cluster developments madeavailable by decentralized wastewatersystems can prevent these impacts.

Community development often looksto decentralization when it wants to cre-ate a signature project. By designing thedevelopment into the natural setting andavoiding ecologically and culturally sen-sitive features, the community can then


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Prinsburg, in Minnesota, uses an engineered wetland and reuses wastewaterat turkey-rearing facilities.

into the concept of a cluster develop-ment made possible by the availabilityof small decentralized wastewater tech-nology, a whole host of innovative andcreative concepts became available,”said Engstrom. In 1997, the Fields of St.Croix became the first decentralizedwastewater project permitted by theMinnesota Pollution Control Agencyand was followed by a dozen more LakeElmo cluster developments.

Once receiving waters are designated“impaired,” the cost of centralized waste-water treatment becomes a greater moti-vator for alternative wastewater scenarios.

In the case of Canadian waters, thisrequires imposing advanced treatment.Some communities, following expensiveTotal Maximum Daily Load studies, nowface load limits that freeze future devel-opment until costly upgrades of thewastewater infrastructure are made. This,in turn, forces higher density on the ex-isting or new sewer systems to gain thehighest return for the cost of the infra-structure. In the long term, this is notsustainable as higher and higher levels oftreatment are required to maintain waterquality TMDL limits.

Communities also need to considerthe source of infrastructure funding. De-centralized wastewater systems are most

often funded by the users/developers,while municipalities more often seekgovernment grants or subsidized loansfor centralized systems. This raises a dif-ferent debate over who should be payingfor the infrastructure development andrepair of aging centralized wastewatersystems after the receiving water usesare impaired. Most funding programsgive preference to centralized systemsover decentralization.

In 2007, the Minnesota Court of Ap-peals ruled that the City of Princetoncould not construct a wastewater treat-ment system that discharged to the RumRiver. The court ruled that the city hadnot met the anti-degradation require-ments of this designated “OutstandingResource Value Water”. Princeton is cur-rently considering decentralized waste-water options.

Cost, TMDL restrictions, inter-basintransfer, advanced treatment require-ments, localized reuse opportunities,sewer availability, induced growth andlong-distance rural sprawl are all reasonsto consider decentralized wastewatertreatment as both an interim and a long-term solution to future sewer service.

The situations in which decentraliza-tion is not the best option, or where itcan be more costly, include: • areas that are easily serviced by a centralized sewer with capacity, • areas where soil limitations make the cost of soil infiltration systems high,• areas where the potential for long- term use of the soil is limited, • industrial facilities that cannot limit the type of influent quality to acceptable levels, and,• areas where high-density development and industrial development are desired.

Where to decentralizeMany communities are faced with

the decision on how and where to grow.As the infilling of the municipal sewerservice area reaches capacity, pressureto expand outside the infrastructureboundary becomes greater. Developersunderstand that the undeveloped land inthe sewered area sells by the squaremetre. Land in the un-sewered area sellsby the hectare and for a whole lot less.

The length of the pipe to reach out-lying areas has several impacts. First, itstimulates the growth of properties along


achieve a much higher efficiency of in-frastructure. Sometimes this centres onreducing road widths and lengths as wellas other impervious surfaces.

Locations with great views and vis-tas often equate to high-value homesites and they are sometimes areas thatare difficult and expensive to develop.In the case of the award-winning Fieldsof St. Croix, in Lake Elmo, Minnesota,it was the appalling waste of land bylarge lots that drove Robert EngstromCompanies to cluster development.

Large lots are often needed to providea sufficient amount of suitable land foron-site septic systems. Without appropri-ate treatment, on-site septic systems havea finite operating life and are not sustain-able. Robert Engstrom quickly realizedthat his dream of creating a livable com-munity required finding a way to servicethe development with a wastewater sys-tem that did not rely on individual septicsystems.

Connection to a centralized sewer sys-tem would require a development stylethat maximized the number of homeswithout regard to the rural communityvalues and open space desires of En-gstrom and his clients. He needed an al-ternative and proposed a cluster system.

“After the City of Lake Elmo bought

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:05 PM


the pipeline. This growth is often a resultof the costs imposed on the landownersfor the pipe. This, in turn, increasesthe value of the land and imposeshigher-density development. Higher-den-sity development often eliminates the op-portunity for open space, preservingcritical habitat, ecologically sensitiveareas and unique features so the infra-structure cost is maximized.

Assessing the potential for a decen-tralized wastewater treatment clusteringapproach should include considerationof the following:• where long pipes are needed,• where septic systems have failed,• for lake developments,• where more open space is desired (lower density),• where soil dispersal technologies are feasible,• for green communities with integrated water,• for phased development projects, and,• for high-value land where higher than large lot density is desired, for work camps and for recreational areas.

Why decentralizeIn 1997, the US Environmental Pro-

tection Agency reported to Congressthat decentralized systems can protectpublic health and the environment, typ-ically have lower capital and mainte-nance costs for rural communities, areappropriate for varying site conditions,

and are suitable for ecologically sensi-tive areas when adequately managed.Since then, in both the US and Canada,issues surrounding the management ofdecentralized wastewater systems havebeen addressed and numerous policiesand practices are currently in place toaddress the identified barriers.

Communities are moving away from“either/or” thinking and are integratingdecentralized service areas into the re-gional service boundary (hybrid infra-structure) and clustering in rural areasto prevent large lot developments. Thisis done not only to reduce the burden oncentralized systems, but also to imple-ment reuse, environmental protection,keep water in the watershed basin, pro-tect habitat and ecologically significantareas, implement non-degradation, andreduce cost.

What’s next?Part two of this article will discuss

how to implement decentralized waste-water systems, some of the barriers to de-centralization, wastewater treatment anddisposal technologies that should be con-sidered, and what safeguards communi-ties should consider when embarking ona new wastewater treatment strategy.

Curtis J. Sparks and Ryan Devlin are with Stantec. E-mail:

[email protected] or [email protected]

Communities are movingaway from “either/or”

thinking and are integrating decentralized

service areas into the regional service boundary(hybrid infrastructure) and

clustering in rural areas to prevent large lot

developments.


ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:05 PM


Biosolids Utilization

PTO pump located on the trailer. Usinga drop tank increases efficiency as halfof a tanker can be unloaded at one time,reducing the truck’s wait time betweentrips by the tractor to spread within therows.

The biosolids are forced through atwo-directional nozzle sprayer at theback of the tank. This setup ensures thatboth sides of the row receive a uniformapplication of nutrients directly to thezone of greatest absorption. By spread-ing both sides of a row simultaneously,the need to travel up the row again iseliminated, thereby increasing efficiencyand reducing soil compaction and poten-tial damage to the nursery stock.

All of the biosolids are incorporatedinto the ground with an 8-foot cultivator.This not only provides tillage, which iscritical for weed management in nurs-eries, but it greatly reduces the risk ofpost-application biosolids migration.This practice ensures a uniform distribu-tion of the material and works the nutri-ents into the soil for greater absorptionand quicker uptake of minerals, signifi-cantly reducing losses of nitrogen tovolatilization, and water-soluble mineralsthrough overland flow. Working the ma-terial into the ground also drasticallyminimizes the perceived threat of con-tamination and reduces odour.

Another unusual element of this pro-gram is the low application rates. The

In the summer of 2007, a nurseryenhancement project, in which bio-solids from wastewater recyclingprojects are used to fertilize tree

nursery stock, was initiated by the Re-gional Municipality of Durham, Ontario,and Terratec Environmental Ltd., in anexclusive partnership with DutchmasterNurseries Ltd. The project, which is li-censed through the Ontario Ministry ofthe Environment, is being implementedon six sites with a combined total of 524acres.

In the first two years of this project,Dutchmaster Nurseries’ managementhas seen significant improvements to thehealth of the soil, as well as reduced de-pendency on commercial fertilizers. Theaddition of biosolids to the nutrientregime has also resulted in a savings ofnearly $80 per acre per application infertilizer costs, specifically nitrogen andphosphorus. Over a five-year applicationcycle, this results in a savings of $240per acre, or approximately $140,000.

The project, which has won a 2009 Ex-emplary Biosolids Management Awardfrom the Water Environmental Associa-tion of Ontario, presents the biosolids in-dustry with a successful, unconventionalopportunity for land application and ben-eficial reuse of non-food growing crops.

“It is important that we continue tofind new ways to improve the manage-ment of biosolids within our communitiesin a sustainable manner,” said JohnPresta, director of environmental servicesfor the Regional Municipality of Durham. Application equipment and process

For this project, Terratec designedspecial application equipment that canapply the material to the base of the treestock amid a standing crop. This newequipment opens up opportunities forother alternative projects, such as refor-estation, vineyards and other ornamentalshrubbery nurseries.

A farm tractor is used to draw a9,000-litre liquid tank modified for thisapplication. The tank is attached to a 24-foot-long, 8.5-foot-wide trailer, makingit highly manoeuvrable and ideal for theconfined spacing of the tree rows. Thetank is filled from a drop tank using a

recommended rate is based on a fertil-izer equivalent of 43 pounds per acre ofnitrogen, which was determined in col-laboration with Dutchmaster Nurseries’management as well as Terratec land ap-plication coordinators. This nutrient re-quirement typically results in a rate of60 cubic metres per hectare of anaerobi-cally digested biosolids from Durham.

In general the field operator can land-apply approximately 160 to 200 cubicmetres per day. This rate makes it possi-ble to apply the same site up to threetimes within the five-year life of the cer-tificate of approval to reach the nitrogenlimit levels of 135 kg per hectare.

This program is very efficient, requir-ing only a single designated truck/traileroperator and one field operator. In addi-tion, the quick turnaround time fromplant to field results in very little downtime or waiting time, further increasingproductivity. The project also provides anopportunity to reuse biosolids during crit-ical summer periods when fields are nor-mally planted and inaccessible.

Reporting and monitoringTerratec Environmental and Durham

Region are involved in all stages of theprocess from the approvals to the finalpost-application reporting. The biosolidsthat are land-applied are kept under a verystringent monitoring process at the plants.They are tested for solid content, metals,pH and a number of other characteristics.

Turning “trash into treasure” for tree nurseriesThe biosolidsare forcedthrough a two-directionalnozzle sprayerat the back of the tank.

All of the biosolids areincorporated into the

ground with an 8-foot cultivator.

By Phil Sidhwa

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:31 PM


Biosolids Utilization

In the unlikely event that the biosolidsdo not meet the specific criteria for landapplication, the material would be imme-diately diverted from the program to theincinerator or back into the flow for fur-ther processing. This continuous monitor-ing provides the project with high-qualitymaterial and ensures that a uniform,nutrient-rich fertilizer is applied to thenursery stock.

Accurate site plans are generated usingGPS information and orthorectified im-aging, which quickly identify sensitivefeatures and create clear buffer zones.Other information that is generated in-cludes soil hydrologic group maps, own-ership parcel maps and soil analysis formetals, pH and phosphorus.

Public relations advantagesOne challenge for the biosolid industry

comes from a perception that biosolids areto be applied to a crop that is potentiallydestined for human consumption in someway. This threat, however ill-advised, doesnot apply to this program. The nurserystock is ornamental trees that are to beplanted in parks, urban centres or residen-tial settings. This generally results in a

greater acceptance of the program. Similarly, another facet of the nurs-

ery program is that it does not have thestigma of urban material going to a ruralcommunity. As the nursery’s product isused largely by the urban community,this project represents a green cycle ofurban renewal, as the population is bothresponsible for the biosolid origins anda beneficiary of its reuse.

Also, in the midst of a greener age,the use of chemical and artificial com-mercial fertilizers has come undergreater scrutiny. Commercial fertilizersare very expensive, energy-intensive toproduce, and typically very demandingof our diminishing resources.

By incorporating biosolids back intothe soils, we are reintroducing many ofthe properties that were removed duringcrop harvest. Nitrogen, phosphorus, or-ganic matter and micro-organisms areall critical aspects of a healthy soil envi-ronment and are just part of the multi-tude of constituents found in biosolids.

The program is also very open andtransparent to the public, which helps toincrease awareness and acceptance.

Contact information is provided throughneighbour notifications, municipal noti-fications and site, vehicle and equip-ment signage, so residents can obtainadditional information.

The Nursery Enhancement Projecthas proven to be a vital addition to theconventional land application program.The project is capable of providing landapplication outside typical croppingschedules, which is a constant hurdle.

Greater volumes of nutrient-rich bio-solids are diverted away from the incin-erator or landfill and are utilized in anagronomic and environmentally sustain-able manner. The beneficial reuse ofbiosolids has been shown to dramaticallyreduce operating costs, fuel consumptionand man-hours required for clients, notto mention the benefits in nutrient addi-tion, soil improvement properties andtillage for producers.

Phil Sidhwa is with Terratec Environmental Ltd. E-mail:

[email protected]

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:31 PM


Water Treatment

T&O (earthy and musty) episodes in theNiagara region, which uses the NiagaraRiver as one of its raw water sources, wasfirst observed in the early 1990s. Thissudden rise in T&O complaints was alsoobserved to coincide with infestation ofthe Niagara River with zebra mussels. In-terestingly, this was an event not limitedto Ontario, but widespread throughoutNorth America.

Numerous studies since then havelinked zebra mussel populations to tasteand odour episodes, leading to the preva-lent notion that the mussels can be indirectprecursors to T&O-causing compounds.

Current taste and odour handlingTo control T&O, water utilities in

North America typically rely on pre- andpost-chlorination along with activatedcarbon treatment in powder form (PAC)and/or granular form (GAC). Introduc-tion of PAC and GAC treatment has es-sentially been for the removal of MIBand geosmin. Some plants in Ontariouse only PAC as it is relatively inexpen-

Taste and odour represent one ofthe major causes of consumercomplaints about drinkingwater. While often not a con-

cern in terms of actual health impacts,the offensive taste and odour (T&O) ofsome compounds can lead to psychoso-matic effects such as headaches, stress orstomach upsets.

The three most commonly used para-meters to define T&O are thresholdodour numbers (TON) and taste thresh-old numbers (TTN) and flavour profileanalysis (FPA). TON and TTN indicatethe highest dilution of the sample withT&O-free water at which taste andodour can still be perceived. FPA in-volves sensory analysis of intensity offour basic tastes and 20 basic odours bya panel of at least four experts.

It is now widely recognized that manynaturally occurring organic compoundscan cause T&O in drinking watereven at very low (ng/L) concentrations.In particular, two compounds, MIB (2-methyl-isoborneal) and geosmin (trans-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol), which are me-tabolites of aquatic microbes and can bedetected by consumers as earthy or mustyodours at concentrations as low as 10ng/L, are the major causative agents ofT&O episodes across North America andmany other parts of the world.

In a 1996 survey of 800 water utilitiesacross the United States and Canada,43% reported earthy or musty odourevents lasting more than one week. Morerecently, in July and August 2004, a T&Osurvey conducted by the Ontario CleanWater Agency included 59 municipalitiesfrom the US and Canada. Out of the 59respondents, 46 drew water from one ofthe six Great Lakes, while 13 others drewtheir water from the Detroit, Niagara,St. Clair or St. Lawrence Rivers, or theWelland Canal. The survey concludedthat the majority of these facilities expe-rienced some T&O problems related toMIB and geosmin.

Microorganisms identified as respon-sible for production of these compoundsin raw water sources are several generaof blue-green algae and actinomycetes.Significantly, the sudden increase in

sive and has the flexibility to be appliedas needed. However, with T&O havingbecome a consistent and long-termproblem, the use of PAC alone is oftenfound to be inadequate. In light of this,along with handling problems associ-ated with PAC, many utilities have nowshifted to GAC. The use of GAC alongwith PAC has also been reported at cer-tain municipalities in the US.

Although effective, GAC treatment isextremely expensive because of highcapital costs and the need for frequentreplacement. Moreover, owing to thelimited understanding of geosmin andMIB adsorption at such low concentra-tions, there are no existing criteria forthe PAC doses and GAC product selec-tion.

Furthermore, natural organic com-pounds present at mg/L or μg/L levelsfurther compound the problem by com-peting for the adsorption sites, thus re-ducing the adsorption capacity of

Tackling seasonal taste and odour events in drinking water By Harpreet Rai


The R.C. Harris filtrationplant with its historic artdeco has provided waterto the City of Torontosince 1941.

While usually not dangerous, taste and odour indrinking water can cause psychosomatic effects

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:05 PM

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:15 PM


Water Treatment

ozonation at ozone doses of 4 - 7 mg/L.Although effective in at least partiallyremoving MIB and geosmin at thesedoses, the technology suffers from thedisadvantage of conversion of natural

organic compounds in water to readilybiodegradable by-products, which canlead to biological growth in the distribu-tion systems, necessitating applicationof chlorine at much higher doses during

PAC/GAC for geosmin and MIB. Attimes this leads to objectionably highconcentrations of these compounds inthe water supplies in spite of the expen-sive treatment.

Alternative technologiesMany new technologies have been de-

veloped for removal of T&O compoundsover the last two decades. Although mostof these technologies are essentially ex-tensions and/or combinations of well-es-tablished pre-existing technologies suchas ozonation, PAC/GAC adsorption, ultra-filtration (with PAC) and biofiltration,some of them have been proved to bemore effective as well as more economicalthan conventional PAC/GAC treatment.

1. Ozonation - Ozonation is an ad-vanced oxidation process that usesozone to disinfect water and removetastes and odours from natural organicmatter. Ozone is used in North Americawith increasing frequency to complywith chlorine disinfection by-products(DBP) regulations.

Many pilot scale studies have provedthat both geosmin and MIB can be re-moved with 80 - 95% efficiency by

distribution. The use of biologically ac-tive filtration following ozone is criticalto mitigate this issue.

The typical dose of ozone for its tra-ditional application in water treatment isaround 2 - 3 mg/L. However, effectiveremoval of geosmin and MIB to belowTON levels warrants much higher doses(7 - 10 mg/L). The long-term cost impli-cations of higher doses of ozone, and theresulting higher doses of chlorine, haveto be carefully weighed before ozona-tion can be adopted as an effective alter-native for removal of T&O compoundsat full scale.

2. Ozonation with biofiltration - Thecombination of ozonation and biofiltra-tion is particularly effective for treatingT&O compounds because the two tech-niques complement each other well.Biofiltration following ozonation stabi-lizes the water by significantly reducingthe concentration of the highly degradableozonation by-products, which often leadto biological growth in distribution sys-tems.

In addition, these readily biodegrad-able compounds help maintain a high

The Trojan UV-H2O2 systems installedat the facility provide 1.3 log removalof geosmin.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


Water Treatment

(CLCWTP) in the Chicago area. Thisplant, like its neighbouring 22 treatmentfacilities, draws its water from southwestLake Michigan. The source water for allthese plants has earthy/musty odours inlate summer and fall. However, the fin-ished water of CLCWTP is free of theseodours, as indicated by T&O tests and alack of consumer complaints, unlike waterfrom the neighbouring treatment plants,which receive numerous complaints.

Close monitoring and detailed inves-tigation of the performance of CLCWTP

suggested that the ozonation-biofiltrationtandem can indeed effectively removehigh levels of MIB. The report recom-mended that utilities planning to useozonation for taste and odour removalshould consider biofiltration, not only toeliminate biological instability but as anintegral part of the T&O process.

biomass concentration in the biofilter,thereby enhancing its ability to degrademicropollutants like MIB and geosmin.

Pilot studies in South Korea, con-ducted over a period of two years, haveshown that pre-ozonation of filtratedwater prior to GAC treatment increasesboth the GAC service time and the MIBand geosmin removal efficiency. The rea-son cited for the improved efficiency andservice time was the biological activationof the GAC bed caused by oxygen-rich,pre-ozonated water.

Furthermore, pre-ozonation offered theadditional advantage of obviating in-creases in pre-chlorination doses requiredin cases of increased algal concentrationsin raw water, and hence controlled the for-mation of DBPs resulting from higherdoses of chlorine. It was established thatpre-ozonation at doses of 3 - 5 mg O3/L,with O3 contactor HRT of 7.5 min, notonly enhances the GAC life and effi-ciency, but also the treated water qualityin general.

An excellent example of the ozona-tion/biofiltration combination is the Cen-tral Lake County Water Treatment Plant

3. PAC and ultrafiltration (UF) - Atechnology known as the CRISTAL®

process, comprising UF and PAC, wasdeveloped by a French company, Suez-Environnement-CIRSEE, in 1995. Thistechnology involves injection of PACinto untreated water. PAC particles ad-sorb the T&O compounds and are even-tually removed from the liquid streamthrough ultrafiltration membranes. Dur-ing pilot studies, it was found that, inmany cases, the CRISTAL process wasmore efficient than O3/GAC.

Today, 17 full-scale plants with ca-pacities ranging from 200 to 120,000m3/d are using this process, seven ofthem with the primary objective of con-trolling T&O (Table 1). This technologyis capable of almost completely remov-ing earthy and musty odours from water.


The source water for all these plants hasearthy/musty odours in late summer and fall.

However, the finished water of CLCWTP is free of these odours.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


Water Treatment

geosmin. Trojan Technologies has recentlyinstalled several advanced UV-oxidationsystems using UV light and hydrogen per-oxide (H2O2) in the US and Canada, in-cluding installations at the West Elgin,Cornwall and Lorne Park water treatmentplants (WTPs) in Ontario.

The West Elgin WTP has a rated ca-pacity of 14.3 MLD and draws it waterfrom Lake Erie. The geosmin concentra-tions in the raw water during taste andodour episodes can be as high as 600ng/L. The Trojan UV-H2O2 systems in-

In addition, it can easily cope with pro-longed episodes of high geosmin/MIBconcentrations (50 mg/L) with low PACdoses; it can tackle much higher concen-trations of geosmin/MIB concentrationsfor short periods.

4. UV-H2O2 oxidation - The use ofUV radiation as an oxidant and disinfec-tant is now well-established and imple-mented in water treatment facilities allover the world. Lately, UV technology hasalso been emerging as a strong option forT&O removal related to MIB and

stalled at the facility provide 1.3 log re-moval of geosmin. Similarly, the installa-tion at Cornwall WTP (100 MLD)provides 1 log removal of geosmin and theone at Lorne Park (391 MLD) 1.3 log and1.0 log removal of geosmin and MIB.

The major difference between UVtechnology for disinfection and taste andodour removal is the requirement ofmore UV along with H2O2 injection incase of the latter. Once the T&O events(two to four weeks) recede naturally tounobjectionable levels, the extra UV

Plant and on-line date Capacity Source water Average PAC dose

Apieʼ, France,1993 28,000 m3/d Reservoir 8 mg/L

Vigneux, France, 1997 55,000 m3/d Clarified surface water 8 mg/L

Laussane, Switzerland, 1999 65,000 m3/d Lake water 5 - 10 mg/L

Glendal, Texas, USA, 2000 1,900 m3/d Surface water Not available

Avranche, France, 2000 10,000 m3/d Clarified surface water Not available

La Terrisse, France, 2000 6,000 m3/d Clarified surface water Not available

Orleans, France, 2005 40,000 m3/d Clarified water 5 mg/L

Table 1: Full scale plants using the CRISTAL® process.

w w w. t e r r a t e c . a m w a t e r . c o m

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


Water Treatmentpredict the duration of T&O episodes.

These predictions actually resulted intwo distinct improvements in the manage-ment of water utilities at three reservoirsin Arizona in 2005. First, the estimatedduration of the T&O episode and concen-trations of target compounds enabled theauthorities to get a better handle on PACinventory along with optimization ofdosage. On the other hand, in one of thelocations, the prediction of onset of ther-mal destratification enabled the operatorto switch to an alternative source of rawwater and avoid the spikes in the targetcompounds altogether.

ConclusionsWhile PAC and GAC have been and

are still used successfully to control sea-sonal taste and odour events in many fa-cilities, there are instances where theadsorption technologies have been foundto be limited by their efficiency, espe-cially with respect to geosmin and MIBremoval. The major reason is the com-petition for the adsorption sites fromboth low concentration (ng/L to μg/L)dissolved hydrophobic organic com-pounds and high concentrations (mg/L)of natural organic matter often present

lamps and H2O2 injection are turned offand the system resumes operation in dis-infection mode.

Management strategiesUnderstanding the hydrologic and

biogeochemical processes that lead tochanges in MIB and geosmin concentra-tions can be an effective strategy for pre-dicting the timing and patterns of suchchanges, and thus a tool for cost-effec-tive in-plant treatment options like PACapplication and improved managementof water supplies.

Recent studies have revealed that themonitoring of thermal stratificationchanges and MIB/geosmin depth profilesin source water reservoirs can predictsudden increases in the concentrations ofthese compounds. The thermal destratifi-cation of reservoirs during summermonths leads to mixing of the water col-umn, which uniformly spreads the previ-ously localized concentrations of targetcompounds throughout the depth.

An accurate prediction of the thermaldestratification phenomenon can, there-fore, predict the onset of the T&O events.Secondly, information about MIB andgeosmin reaction rates could be used to

in natural waters containing MIB andgeosmin.

Several new technologies now offerpotentially better and more effective con-trol, especially of MIB and geosmin. Re-finement and/or combination of theexisting techniques along with the devel-opment of some innovative new tech-niques now offer a range of options fortackling seasonal taste and odour in water.

The final choice of a preferred tech-nology requires careful evaluation offactors such as capital and operationalcost, compatibility with the existing sys-tem, ease of operation and effectivenessin T&O removal.

Further, given the fact that the exactmechanisms of geosmin and MIB pro-duction are not well defined, a detailedunderstanding of the hydrogeologicaland biochemical phenomena responsiblefor seasonal peaks of these compoundsin intake water sources would lead tomanagement strategies that can mitigatethe problem at source.

Harpreet Rai, Ph.D., P.Eng., is withR.V. Anderson Associates. E-mail:

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


Water Metering

ment proactive backflow monitoring, el-evate customer support and enhance itsability to manage its public works pro-jects and conservation programs.

The City can use advanced meter in-formation as the foundation of a varietyof critical management functions.

Non-revenue water monitoringUsing the new system’s time synchro-

nized readings, the City will have thetotal consumption for any given collec-tion of meters within a district or “zone.”This total consumption is used to com-pare to a master or “bulk” meter(s) serv-icing the zone, providing an additionaltool to perform mass balances within any

The City of Miramichi, NewBrunswick, recently imple-mented an advanced meter in-frastructure (AMI) system.

The full-scale, two-way fixed networksystem, provided by Neptune Technol-ogy Group, will advance the way theCity manages its overall water system.

Miramichi, with a population of ap-proximately 22,000, is located in north-ern New Brunswick and was formed in1996. The City has approximately 4,800metered services, and 2,200 of thesewater meters needed replacement, whichprovided a compelling reason to make adecision on a future meter reading tech-nology.

Several factors were considered whenthe City examined its current remote-based reading technology: • Increased maintenance costs as current technology ages (older remote, wire and water meter).• Increased frequency and expenses associated with seasonal reads.• The need for more frequent reads, as 50% of revenue comes from commercial meters.• The City’s desire to provide a similar service level for all customers. • The need to understand and address unaccounted-for water/non-revenue.

A full-scale fixed network systemwould allow the City to address these is-sues effectively and provide a technol-ogy to meet its needs over the next 15 to20 years. The City would be better ableto manage its non-revenue water, imple-

given zone of the distribution system.When there is a large discrepancy be-tween a particular zone’s total consump-tion and the respective master meter(s),that indicates potential distribution sys-tem leaks within the zone.

Using the fixed network system’stwo-way licensed communication capa-bility from the host software to the radiofrequency meter interface unit, the Citycan receive prompt notification of leakoccurrences at the meter source andalong the water distribution lines. Leaknotifications can be viewed as a reportor transferred seamlessly through thesystem’s software as an E-mail to criti-cal operations staff, alerting them to po-tential issues in the distribution system.

Figure 1 depicts an actual distributionleak event that was captured by the newAMI system. The City had suspectedthere was a severe leak somewhere, butdid not know the exact location. Thenew AMI system provides confirmationthat a leak is actually occurring and caneasily perform daily monitoring of thedistribution system from the comfort ofthe City’s office.

Enhanced customer serviceCustomer inquiries can now be re-

solved more efficiently with the abilityto E-mail customers usage graphs that

Miramichi implements advanced water meter infrastructure system

Figure 1. Actual distribution leak event captured on AMI system.

(Left to right ) Frank Duffy, Director of Public Works, City of Miramichi, JimLamkey, City Manager, Bill Kelly, Neptune Canada.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM

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Water Meteringprofile their water consumption, identi-fying leak situations and when actualwater consumption occurred. These ca-pabilities help customers understandtheir water consumption and quickly an-swer questions about their recent waterbills. All this information is readilyavailable to City staff.

Figure 2 depicts an actual leak occur-rence at a Miramichi residence. Theusage profile was used to address an ac-tual high-bill complaint. Consumptiongraphs can be easily E-mailed to an enduser to confirm the consumption amountand when it occurred.

Improved operational efficienciesWith the two-way licensed frequency

communication system, the City re-ceives prompt notification of alarm con-ditions such as a leak at a home orbuilding, or a major reverse flow event.Alarms are configured for E-mail tocritical city staff, allowing them to makeimportant operational decisions andpromptly take any necessary actions toresolve the situation. Figure 3 showshow an alarm is set up to notify city per-sonnel of alarm situations.

The two-way radio frequency of Mi-ramichi’s fixed network system is li-censed by Industry Canada and the FCC,so the AMI system will consistently de-liver information without interference.

Support of conservation initiativesWith time-synchronized readings

within the AMI system, usage restrictionprograms (odd/even-day usage) can nowbe easily and effectively monitored todetermine the exact time and day thatend users are using water.

This information (in the form of aneasy-to-read usage profile graph) canthen be delivered via E-mail to an enduser to further reinforce the importanceof water conservation and adherence toa water usage restriction program.

Manage high-revenue demand The new AMI system allows for effi-

cient support for high-revenue users.Peak demand is monitored using the sys-tem’s time-synchronized two-way sys-tem for proper sizing of institutional,commercial and industrial meters. If re-quired, the City can make an informeddecision to resize a meter for its specificapplication.

Monitoring of peak demand can alsobe used to enforce demand restrictions

Figure 2. Actual leak occurrence at aMiramichi residence.



ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


Water Metering

on high-revenue users to ensure there isenough supply for all customers.

Moving into the future, the City’smeter reading technology will no longerbe used just for “reading meters.” Rather,the implementation of the AMI systemwill allow Miramichi to obtain timely(critical) data from the field, as well asdaily (system-wide) time-synchronizedsnapshots of readings from all meters.

Access to this valuable data will supportfuture leak detection and conservationinitiatives and eliminate off-cycle read-ings for high water bill complaints and/ormove-ins/move-outs.


Figure 3. Alarm set-up to notify City personnel of alarm situation.

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


• Continuously connected to the Internet. • Plentiful system resources. • Never overloaded.• No regular IT group audit.

Does a water or wastewater SCADAsystem sound like it meets these criteria?

What is the risk?As the unknowing host there are three

major concerns: 1. The zombie will (unintentionally)disrupt your computer/server and causea system failure. 2. In chasing down illegal activities, theauthorities will determine that yourserver played a role. 3. The botmaster will sell the space onyour server to someone who really wantsto damage your operations.

Which systems are the most vulnerable?

Small- to medium-sized SCADA sys-tems connected to the Internet for filetransfer, information, and control needsare likely to be the most vulnerable. Gen-erally, large systems have dedicated inter-nal networks and are often not connected(at least not intentionally) to the Internet.In addition, large municipalities have ITdepartments that expend a lot of effort inidentifying and correcting transgressions.

What can I do to protect my SCADA system?

There are several important ways toprotect SCADA systems:

You can find a lot of interest-ing information on the Inter-net these days. Unfortunatelya lot of unwelcome stuff can

also find you!In potable water systems we can in-

stall a backflow preventer that not onlywill prevent the reverse flow of water,but, if any water gets past the first de-fense of the preventer, it will be dis-charged to the floor so you know thatmaintenance is required and you knowwhich liquid got by. Unfortunately, a par-allel to the backflow preventer has notbeen developed for Internet connections.

The purpose of this article is to makeyou aware of a new threat to SCADAsystems from the Internet. This is not thedisrupting virus of the past which actedto disable computers everywhere. In-stead it seeks to occupy your computingsystem, selling your resources to thosewho prefer anonymity.

How it worksAutomated hacking programs exploit

security vulnerabilities in your computersystem to embed a small remote accessand control application. The applicationreserves complete control of its host.These infected computer systems asknown as “zombies”.

The zombie will remain dormant,awaiting instructions from its master. Anetwork of zombies is referred to as abot-net which can be as small as a fewzombies, or span millions. A botmastercontrols a bot-net.

The botmaster will rent the zombies tousers who prefer indiscretion over expo-sure. There is no shortage of organiza-tions/individuals ready to pay top dollarto have their material and transactionsparked in someone else’s computer. Thesecan include financial scams, offshore taxhavens, and extremist organizations.

Who is the target hostfor the zombie?

No one is specifically targeted to bethe host for the zombie. Instead automatedhacking programs test a wide variety ofaddresses for breaching opportunities. Theideal candidate host might have the fol-lowing features:• Computer is always powered.

1. Disconnect SCADA from the Inter-net. 2. Provide a separate, stand alone com-puter connected to the Internet for use bystaff. Prohibit any cable connections be-tween this computer and the SCADAsystem. 3. Don’t even think about wireless sys-tems with SCADA. 4. Prohibit equipment suppliers and serv-ices providers from having a “direct link”designed to “improve their performance”.Instead have the data accumulatedweekly on SCADA and transferred to theInternet computer via a CD or memorystick, NOT an Ethernet cable. 5. Have your SCADA system checkedregularly for “convenient” connectionsto the Internet.

If you must use the Internet to allow“on-call” staff to respond to alarms dur-ing off-hours, segregate alarms to elim-inate minor nuisances; have majoralarms alert the on-call staff via a tele-phone alarm service (i.e., ADT); havethe on-call staff use a dial-up connectionto interrogate the SCADA system; andemploy modern security technologies,such as encrypted VPN tunneling, toavoid direct connectivity to the Internet.

Mark Brilliant and Ken Mains are with CH2M HILL. E-mail:[email protected]

Understanding SCADA system vulnerability in water utilities By Mark Brilliant and Ken Mains

Security

Intruder Alert!

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM

Soil and groundwater at a farm site in Schaffer, Michi-gan, were impacted by gasoline constituents that orig-inated from former underground storage tanks. Theleaking tanks were removed in 1995.

Based on the reported petroleum-contaminated water seepinginto the excavation hole along the surface of the bedrock duringthe tank removal process, groundwater monitoring was recom-mended. The results of the 1996-97 monitoring effort showedthat groundwater had been impacted at the source of the gasolinetank leak, which was located between the farmhouse and thefarm water well. Benzene levels and those of other gasoline-as-sociated pollutants substantially exceeded Michigan standards.

Due to the danger of the gasoline leaking into the farm watersupply, the US Department of Agriculture contracted with ThePaz Group, from Dallas, Texas, for additional services to delin-eate, monitor and remediate the contaminants.

The ChallengeFollowing conventional remedial actions (including soil exca-

vation, soil vapor extraction, and groundwater pump-and-treat)benzene remained present in the groundwater at levels exceedingthe Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s regulatorylimit of 5 ppb. These impacts were mainly in Well #11 (at the for-mer source area) and Well #7 (at the collection area). The soils inthe area were characterized as nearly level to moderately steep,well drained to somewhat poorly drained, loamy soils; and nearlylevel, very poorly drained organic soils.

The SolutionIn October 2006, a total of 966 lbs of EHC-O® was added to

18 injection points within the targeted hot spot, which measuredabout 50 ft wide x 50ft long x 10 feet deep (from 5 to 15 ft bgs).

Approximately 815 US gallons of EHC-O slurry were intro-duced into the subsurface using GeoProbe direct push technology,in which 1 ¼-inch diameter steel rods with disposable tips wereadvanced to a target depth or when they first encountered bedrock.The depth of the bedrock at the site ranged from 4.5 to 8.3 feetbelow ground surface. Approximately 50 gallons of Adventus


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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:15 PM


Site Remediation

EHC-O at 14.5-percent solution were in-jected at each point as the rods were re-tracted from the resulting borehole.Exact injection point locations and vol-ume of injected solution varied depend-ing on site conditions and soil matrix.

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digenous microorganisms to utilize theavailable carbon (i.e., hydrocarbons).

The ResultApproximately 4 months following

EHC-O injection, the concentration ofbenzene in groundwater decreased by>99% in both monitoring wells. Oneyear after treatment, monitoring showedthat the concentration of benzene, and

Figure 1. Concentrations of benzene in groundwater before and one-year after EHC-O injection.

other constituents, remained below ana-lytical detection limits (Figure 1). Therewas no rebound and the site was recom-mended for closure with no further in-vestigation or remedial action necessary.


ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:06 PM


Legal Affairs

tion of expected changes, such as a man-ufacturing facility that plans a new paintline or electroplating operations. This isthe “operating envelope”, or the limits ofthe operation that are anticipated for thefacility.

The organization needs to meet otherrequirements, such as keeping a log ofall modifications made to its operations,which must be summarized once a yearand sent in written form to the MOE.These, and the other requirements of aCC of A, are not significantly more bur-densome than those involved in the reg-ular C of A application process.

Some organizations may find it diffi-cult to define the operating envelope. Itis best to consider the outputs to be pro-duced. In a manufacturing context, thiswould include the number of units to beproduced and of which products. In aservice sector operation, such as a hospi-tal, this might include the number of bedsor patients. If the number of patients is toincrease, this may call for an addition tothe existing buildings which would indi-cate an increase in some emissions.

Having adequate professional adviceavailable, either in-house or from exter-

In a world where the only constantseems to be change, organizationsneed flexibility to respond to newcircumstances. It could be the need

to take advantage of an emerging marketfor a new product, a change in process,such as a better kind of paint, or an ex-pansion of production.

Organizations need to simplify theprocess to obtain a new Certificate ofApproval (C of A), because of a rela-tively minor alteration in their operations.Obtaining an amended C of A divertsstaff and management time from themain purpose of the organization, andlikely involves external costs as well.

More important, the planned changecannot go ahead until the C of A is ob-tained. The time-frame for that is poten-tially months, and the length of time isunpredictable. Regulators may requestchanges to the application and additionalinformation, or have the opportunity tochange a condition on the C of A, whichcan further delay the process. Also, thereis the possibility of the application beingrejected.

In Ontario, the provincial governmenthas been encouraging organizations toconsider an alternative that can allow formore operational flexibility and lesstime and money spent on the permittingprocess – the Comprehensive Certificateof Approval (CC of A). This approachhas been applied to air and noise ap-provals for more than five years. Now,the Ontario Ministry of the Environment(MOE) has expanded this concept towaste approvals and is piloting industrialsewage approvals as well.

Under the usual C of A process,changes to the operation may trigger theneed for another C of A application, andthe operational change cannot take placewithout the regulator’s approval. Thisneed for amendments to a C of A for op-erational changes is one reason Ontariohas had such a backlog of environmentalapproval applications.

Under the CC of A (Air and Noise)process, the proponent estimates itsmaximum emissions based on its plansfor the next five years, and for its entireoperation. This may include considera-

nal counsel, is important in developinga credible, defensible picture of the op-eration’s expected emissions over thenext five years.

One reason that the Ontario govern-ment is encouraging applicants to filefor a CC of A is that it is expected tohelp reduce pressures on the regulatoryauthorities. It is also hoped that an easierregulatory process will improve theprovince’s competitiveness, while alsoretaining the integrity of the regulatoryframework that helps protect Ontario’senvironment and human population.

Choosing a C of A over a CC of AUnder what circumstances would one

choose a C of A over a CC of A? If the or-ganization expects no changes to its oper-ations in the near future, a regular C of Awould be better. However, our experienceis that there are few sectors that are notundergoing significant change at present,i.e., new products, new processing meth-ods, new inputs or other changes.

The Ministry has prepared extensiveonline resources to help proponents de-velop sound applications for Certificates,including checklists of the information tobe included. There is also a good resource

Is a Comprehensive Certificate of Approval right for you?

Under the CC of A (Air and Noise) process, the proponent estimates its maximum emissions based on its plans for the next five years, and for itsentire operation. Photos courtesy of Carl Friesen.

By Sarah McQuaig and Pamela Russell

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:07 PM


in the “ACME Program,” which includes model permit applica-tions from a fictitious company called ACME. It guides propo-nents in preparing their own applications. ACME examples arenow available for various environmental media.

For more information on the ACME program and the waysproponents can achieve faster and more positive responses, read“How to achieve faster environmental approvals in Ontario,”by Sean Capstick of Golder Associates Ltd., in the March 2009issue of this magazine.

One of the ways the Ontario government encourages the useof the CC of A process is through ASAP (Accelerated SelectApplications Program), which strives towards turning aroundcorrect, complete and in other ways problem-free CC of A ap-plications in a matter of 45 days. Applications going throughthe ASAP process must be prepared by individuals who havetaken and passed the relevant training course. The provincialgovernment has indicated that having a demonstrated anddocumented Quality Assurance/Quality Control process in


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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 2:00 PM


Legal Affairs

place for preparing the application is arequirement of ASAP.

Following on the heels of ASAP, theMinistry of the Environment launchedthe Waste Comprehensive Certificate ofApproval Program in March 2009. Sim-

ilarly to ASAP, the applications must beprepared to a high quality of standardand completeness, and those preparingthe applications are required to alsocomplete a CC of A orientation session.The turnaround time for approval is ex-

pected to decrease since only high qual-ity applications are accepted.

Once approved, owners and operatorsare able to make modifications withinthe operating envelope without the tra-ditional need to make an application forapproval.

Examples of operational flexibilityinclude the ability to make changes thatare routine, with predictable effects thatare environmentally insignificant; makechanges to the facilities and infrastruc-ture; make changes to the processing op-erations and install new equipment;utilize an annual averaging of the amountof waste that is received; increase theamount of waste that may be stored at thewaste disposal site within a predeter-mined envelope; receive additional cate-gories of municipal waste at the site; and,receive residential municipal solid wastein an emergency situation.

Given the current economic slow-down, it is important to be able to posi-tion organizations in a way that they cantake full advantage of the expected eco-nomic rebound – and this is supportedby the operational flexibility provided bythe Comprehensive Certificate of Ap-proval process.

Sarah McQuaig and Pam Russell arewith Golder Associates Ltd. E-mail:

[email protected], [email protected]

Minor changes to an existing operation may be covered under a Comprehensive Certificate of Approval, improving theorganization’s ability to respond to changes.

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:07 PM

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:15 PM


dards on trihalomethanes and haloaceticacids.

Highlights of the study1. N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA)

formation during chloramination can bereduced by adding pre-formed mono-chloramine to minimize the concentra-tion of dichloramine.

2. The colloidal, hydrophilic base andhydrophilic acid/neutral fractions ofdissolved organic matter (DOM) isolatedfrom algal-impacted or wastewater-im-pacted source waters were importantsources of precursors for certain N-DBPs. However, hydrophilic DOM ispoorly removed during traditional treat-ment processes, according to the study

3. NDMA formation was associatedwith chloramination of source watersimpacted by wastewater with utilitiesemploying polyDADMAC (a coagula-tion polymer) or with the use of certainresins. Pre-oxidation of waters with freechlorine or ozone destroyed or trans-formed NDMA precursors.

4. The mechanisms of formation andthe impact of treatment and disinfectionprocesses on N-DBPs often differed from

The AWWA Research Found-ation recently released a studyabout organic and inorganicnitrogen precursors in source

waters and nitrogenous disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) in chlorinated andchloraminated finished waters.

Although DBP research has tradition-ally focused on the formation of carbona-ceous chlorination DBPs (C-DBPs), twotrends in the drinking water industrymake the study of N-DBPs increasinglyimportant. N-DBPs are a specialized sub-set of the C-DBPs, wherein the character-istic functional group is nitrogen-based.

First, due to population growth, an in-creasing number of drinking water sup-plies exhibit elevated dissolved organicnitrogen (DON) concentrations resultingdirectly from wastewater discharges orfrom algal activity fostered by increasedinorganic nitrogen loadings (e.g., agricul-tural runoff, stormwater runoff, wastewaterdischarges, septic tank releases, etc.).

Secondly, drinking water utilities areconsidering altering disinfection schemesfrom chlorination to other disinfectantcombinations to meet more stringent stan-

that of C-DBPs. Nonetheless, there areways of optimizing the overall treat-ment/disinfection process to control theformation of emerging N-DBPs and reg-ulated C-DBPs

The approach to DBPsFirst, pathways responsible for the

degradation of simply amino precursorsand their transformation into nitriles,aldehydes, HNMs, and nitrosamines wereexamined. Second, algal- and waste-water-impacted waters were fractionatedand subjected to formation potential (FP)tests to examine which DOM fractionsyielded the highest concentrations of N-DBPs. Third, N-DBP FP tests were usedto evaluate precursor levels in a range ofalgal- and wastewater-impacted sourcewaters. Precursor removal was examinedwithin drinking water treatment processunits. Finally, N-DBP concentrationswere quantified in the effluents of treat-ment plants employing a range of disin-fection schemes.

Results and findingsFormation pathway studies indicated

that nitrosamine formation during chlo-ramination can be substantially accounted

Occurrence and formation of nitrogenous disinfectionby-products during drinking water disinfection

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:07 PM


Disinfection

for by reactions involving dichloramine.Nitrosamine formation was also pro-moted under certain breakpoint chlorina-tion conditions, or from the use of certainanion exchange resins.

The cyano groups in cyanogen chlo-ride or haloacetonitriles can form byelimination of hydrochloric acid from in-termediate organic chloramines, or byreaction of inorganic chloramines withaldehydes. As a result of the lattercase, chloramination may promote theformation of cyano-based N-DBPs.Halonitromethane formation duringchlorination/chloramination was less im-portant, but higher during chloramina-tion in model studies.

Studies involving DOM isolates indi-cated that nitrogen-rich colloidal, hydro-philic base and hydrophilic acid/neutralfractions were significant sources of cer-tain N-DBP precursors. Although certainisolates were nitrogen-rich, NDMA pre-cursors were particularly associated withfractions obtained from wastewater treat-ment plants. Chloramination formedcyanogen chloride, and the nitrogen inthis DBP was split between the DON and

the inorganic chloramines, where morecame from the DON in nitrogen-richDOM isolates.

The survey showed that DON tended tobe higher in wastewater and/or algal-im-pacted waters. It confirmed that NDMAprecursors were associated with waste-

water-impacted supplies, but alsoindicated that polyDADMAC was a sig-nificant source of NDMA precursors.Ozonation was found to increase HNMFP or that of cyanogen chloride, whereasit sometimes destroyed NDMA FP. Bio-

filtration was often found to decrease theFP for HNMs or cyanogen chloride.

Impact on water qualityDue to population growth, wastewater

and algal impacts to water supplies arelikely to continue to increase, resultingin more DON and precursors for N-DBPs in source waters, which may resultin increased formation of certain N-DBPs. The field survey indicated therange of concentrations of N-DBPslikely to form in utilities treating waste-water-impacted and/or algal-impactedsource waters. Moreover, the results ofthe survey showed ways to optimize thetreatment/disinfection process to controlthe formation of N-DBPs.

In addition, the formation pathwaystudies and the characterization of N-DBP precursors will provide utilitieswith information on how to better under-stand and design treatment/disinfectionprocesses that minimize N-DBP forma-tion.

For more information, or to order this report, visit.

www.waterresearchfoundation.org

Due to populationgrowth, wastewaterand algal impacts to

water supplies arelikely to continue to increase, resulting in

more DON and precursors for N-DBPs

in source waters


Disinfection

There are two overall methods toachieve the total residual chlorine require-ment: (1) dechlorinate the wastewater ef-fluent, or (2) switch to a non-chlorinebased disinfection system such as ozone,UV, or possibly peracetic acid.

So what is peracetic acid (PAA)? Per-acetic acid is an oxidizing compoundthat has been found to be capable ofbeing used as a disinfectant (Dell’Erba,2007, Koivunen, 2005). It has the chem-ical formulation of CH3COOOH – inessence acetic acid with an extra oxygenmolecule. Peracetic acid is currentlybeing used in parts of Europe as a re-placement for chlorine disinfection inwastewater.

Although it has been identified as apotential alternative to chlorine, PAA forwastewater disinfection is not in com-mon use in North America (Falsanisi,2006, Gehr, 2003). It is currently used inNorth America in the food processingindustry as a disinfectant for hard sur-faces that have been in contact withfruits, vegetables, meats and eggs.

The goal of this study was to examineperacetic acid as a chemical disinfectantalternative to chlorine. PAA was testedat two wastewater treatment plants in theNiagara Region of Ontario. The follow-ing parameters were monitored duringthe study: E.coli and total coliform con-centrations, suspended solids, carbona-ceous biochemical oxygen demand(cBOD), ammonia, total phosphorous,pH, and temperature. The objective of

Disinfection is an integral partof wastewater treatment andhas been dominated by chlo-rine for almost a century

(Metcalf and Eddy, 2003). The use ofchlorine for the purposes of disinfectingwastewater has been proven as an effec-tive, easy to use and low cost methodthat clearly explains its popularity as adisinfectant.

However, inorganic chloramines andchlorinated wastewater effluents havebeen found to be toxic to aquatic lifeeven at very low concentrations as wellas potentially carcinogenic or mutagenicto animals (Bull, 1985). As a result,many areas are either moving away fromusing chlorine or require that the waste-water effluent be dechlorinated beforefinal discharge into the receiving watersystem.

The Federation of Canadian Munici-palities recently released the Canada-Wide Strategy for the Management ofMunicipal Wastewater Effluent, whichincludes a national minimum standardfor wastewater effluent for the followingparameters: total suspended solids(TSS), carbonaceous biochemical oxy-gen demand (cBOD), and total residualchlorine (TRC). The residual chlorinecomponent is in agreement with a previ-ously announced federal goal of 0.02mg/L TRC in wastewater plant effluentin 2010 (Federal Legislation: CEPA,1999, from Canada Gazette (Dec 4,2004).

this study was to test from bench scalethrough full scale the use of peraceticacid as a replacement for chlorine forwastewater disinfection as well as a pos-sible supplement for UV treatment inwastewater.

The overall goals of the project wereto assess if PAA could meet the typicalplant disinfection criteria (< 200 CFUE.coli/100 mL) at the sites studied, whilemonitoring to ensure that the peraceticacid did not significantly adversely im-pact on any of the other effluent waterquality parameters indicated earlier(total solids, pH, ammonia, total phos-phorous, cBOD).

The project was divided into threemain phases: Phase 1 (Jar Tests), Phase 2(Pilot Tests), and Phase 3 (Full ScaleTests). Phase 1 (Jar Tests) was conductedwith a Phips and Bird ™ jar tester used atbench scale to establish the approximatedosage of PAA required for disinfection.Samples (100 mL) were collected at 10and 20 minutes after the simultaneous ad-dition of the disinfectant to the waste-water. Samples were monitored for E.coli,total coliforms and pH.

Phase 2 (Pilot Tests) was conductedin a pilot scale tank (3,000 L/hour)based on the design of the chlorine con-tact chamber at the wastewater treatmentplant where testing was conducted tohelp ensure that pilot scale results wererepresentative of full scale expectations.Grab Samples for E. coli and pH werecollected. Composite samples were col-

Evaluating peracetic acid for wastewater disinfection

Figure 1: Pilot tank design based on the full scale chlorine contact chamber in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

By Onita D. Basu and C. Gatchene

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:31 PM


Disinfection

lected for BOD, TSS, TP, and ammonia.Phase 3 (Full Scale Tests) was con-

ducted in conjunction with a UV disin-fection system. Again grab samples forE.coli and pH were collected as well ascomposite samples for BOD, TSS, TPand ammonia. The E.coli and total coli-form samples were processed using ei-ther the IDEXX Colilert® or Colisure®

analysis method. PAA was initially trialed at the Niag-

ara Falls Waste Water Treatment Plant

(NFWWTP), Ontario. The jar testingwas conducted to assess the feasibilityof using PAA as a disinfectant at theNFWWTP. The jar testing results indi-cated that a concentration between 2 - 7mg/L would be sufficient to meet thedisinfection requirement of less than200 E.coli CFU/100 mL and that no ad-verse impact on pH was noted. Thisdosage range was considered acceptableto run at the pilot scale level.

The dosage range tested at pilot scale continued overleaf...

was 1 to 10 mg/L PAA. All tests con-ducted at 2 mg/L PAA were found tohave E.coli results less than the compli-ance standard (200 E.coli CFU/100mL). Samples were tested in duplicateand at various contact times throughoutthe contact chamber to assess the impor-tance of time on the disinfection strategy(Figure 4). There was no statistical dif-ference in E.coli values between 10 to20 minutes contact time at each respec-

Figure 2: Full scale testing: PAA was added to the secondary clarifier effluent.

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:08 PM


limit of 200 CFU/100 mL.Disinfection with PAA and UV was

tested through September and October.In early October the plant experiencedan upset which allowed us to testdosages which would be helpful in meet-ing compliance under less than idealconditions. The dosages tested in Sep-tember and early October before theplant upset ranged from 1.5 to 4.0 mg/Land covered 15 days of sampling. Twofinal effluent samples exceeded the 200cfu/100 mL limit during this time.

Of the two samples greater than thecompliance value, the values collectedwere 249 and 300 cfu/100 mL at dosagesbetween 1.5 – 2.0 mg/L. The 2.0 mg/Ldosage was tested three times with theother two samples meeting compliancevalues. Similarly, the 1.5 mg/L dosagewas tested four times in total, with theother three samples meeting compliancevalues. The geomean of all samples overthis time period was 24 cfu/100 mL.

Based on the data collected, it appearsthat, during regular plant performance, adosage between 2.0 to 2.5 mg/L with theUV system would be sufficient to meetcompliance. It is expected that a lowerdosage could be used if there was a longercontact time available as was observedwith the prior pilot testing.

The UV dosage during the study

tive dosage over 2 mg/L, hence the reac-tion occurs fairly rapidly, although therewas a higher degree of variability in theresults at the 2 mg/L dosage comparedto the 5 - 10 mg/L dosages. This findingis similar to research by others (Del-l’Erba, 2004).

The pilot scale and full scale compos-ite/grab samples for suspended solids,pH, TP and ammonia in the effluentwere not significantly different. Al-though initial BOD testing at the pilotlevel revealed an increase in results, latertesting did not see this same difference.Certainly more testing is warranted here.

Full scale testing was conducted atthe Grimsby Wastewater Treatment Plantin Grimsby, Ontario. This was the firstfull scale study of PAA for municipalwastewater effluent in Canada. Testingwas conducted in the fall of 2008. Thecontact time for the PAA ahead of theUV system ranged between one to threeminutes depending on the plant flowwhich is fairly low, especially whencompared to the contact time normallyallotted for chlorine disinfection. Thiscontact time identified in the pilot scaletests was between five to 10 minutes tomeet compliance with PAA alone, so theexpectations here were that both thePAA and UV would be needed toachieve disinfection to the compliance

ranged from 25.2 to 80.1 mW.s/cm2 withan average value of approximately 44mW.s/cm2. The dosage was decreased partway through September with the initialpositive trial results, and was increasedabout a week after the upset occurred atthe plant.

However, during the plant upset itwas difficult to meet the compliance cri-teria. During this time any PAA dosagebelow 3.0 mg/L was inadequate in help-ing the plant reach its compliance val-ues. However, four samples were testedat 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 mg/L dosage whichresulted in final effluent values between17 – 76 CFU/100 mL.

Therefore, it is clear that, with thecorrect dosage, it would be possible forthe plant to meet compliance during anupset.

Figure 3 shows a standardized log re-moval of PAA dosage and E.coli log re-moval. For instance, on average, at adosage of 1.5 mg/L, the E.coli was re-duced by about 1.8 logs. This impliesthat a dosage of 1.5 mg/L would be ad-equate to reduce an E.coli concentrationof about 12,600 down to 200 CFU/100mL in the one to three minute contacttime. It should be noted that the overallE.coli log removal during the Grimsbystudy was much less than the pilot studyconducted at Niagara Falls and this is at-tributed to the difference in the PAAcontact time between the two studies.

Overall, the use of PAA as an alter-native to chlorine has yielded verypromising results so far with lowdosages (2 - 3 mg/L) able to meet E.colidisinfection criteria with reasonablecontact times.

Valuable lessons were learned duringthe first two month full scale trial at theGrimsby WWTP that will be imple-mented this year to improve upon the re-sults.

Onita Basu is with Carleton University,Ottawa. C. Gatchene is with Niagara

Region, Thorold. E-mail:[email protected]

Disinfection

Figure 3: Log Removal of E.coli at various PAA dosages with 1-3 minutes contact time.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:15 PM

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:15 PM


ings of the US health care system.He has also written and published 10

books on health-related issues, including“Healthy Waters”. First published in2005, this book highlights the facts andfigures about water and its enormous im-pact on the quality of life. Viewing watermanagement as a test of humanity’s abil-ity to handle complex issues in a cooper-ative and compassionate manner, Dr.Magee suggests that water is both an en-vironmental and a public health issue.

In addition to the keynote address, theOpening Session will also feature WaterEnvironment Federation (WEF) Presi-dent Rebecca West and recognition ofWEF award winners and the 2009 Stock-holm Junior Water Prize winners. Atten-dees are encouraged to attend a specialQ&A with Dr. Magee immediately fol-lowing the opening session, as well as abook signing later that day in theWEFTEC Bookstore.

This year, WEF has added three spe-cial sessions to WEFTEC on topics re-lated to the ongoing economic crisis.

“Meet the New Administration” willfeature senior-level speakers from theUS Environmental Protection Agency,who will discuss stimulus and otherfunding sources, as well as new regula-tions and impacts on utility operations.

“The Future for Water InfrastructureBeyond the Stimulus Package” will

Dr. Mike Magee, MD, a veteranhealth care leader and theauthor of "Healthy Waters:What Every Health Profes-

sional Should Know About Water",will deliver the keynote address atWEFTEC.09, which will be held October10-14, 2009, in Orlando, Florida.

A Senior Fellow for Health Policy atthe Center for Aging Services Technolo-gies of the American Association ofHomes & Services for the Aging, andEditor of Health Commentary.org andHealthy-Waters.org, Dr. Magee is well-known for his unique perspective onhealth care and for the championing ofpatient rights.

From 2003 to 2007, he hosted "HealthPolitics with Dr. Mike Magee," a weeklyinternet program, that covered news andinformation related to health issues andhealth care. As host of the program thatproduced more than 180 segments, Dr.Magee helped viewers understand thebig picture of health and the inner work-

focus on the shifting political landscapeof infrastructure investment in the UnitedStates.

“Hard Conversations in Hard TimesUsing Simple Technology” will providean overview of how utilities can use Web2.0 tools to better communicate withtheir communities in a difficult eco-nomic climate.

Other educational opportunities atWEFTEC, related to the economic down-turn, include:• Workshop 210: The New Deal: Cap-ital Project Financing Under ConstrainedCredit Conditions.• Technical Session 063: Solutions forSmall Communities - Utilities of the Fu-ture: Serving Customers Through Dis-tributed, Sustainable Infrastructure.• Technical Session 077: Making EndsMeet: Funding and Financing in Today'sEconomy.

With a technical program of 122 ses-sions, 31 workshops and nine facilitytours, WEFTEC.09 is said to be thelargest conference of its kind in NorthAmerica. The 1,100 company exhibitionwill provide attendees with access to thelatest water quality developments, re-search, regulations, solutions, and cut-ting-edge technologies.

For more information, visitwww.weftec.org.

WEFTEC 09 preview

WEFTEC will be held at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center.

Great Canadian Icebreaker

Canadian attendees are invited to at-tend “The Annual Great Canadian Ice-breaker,” which will take place SaturdayOctober 10th, 2009, from 7:00 pm -11:00 pm at the Caribe Royale OrlandoHotel. For more information, visitwww.weao.org

Author of “Healthy Waters” to open WEFTEC.09

Dr. Mike Magee

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:08 PM


SJWP award for Vancouver student

A student from Vancouver was awarded aDiploma of Excellence at the 2009 Stock-holm Junior Water Prize ceremony in Au-gust. This was the first time a Canadianhas ever mounted the podium in Stock-holm. Mary Yiyue Zhao, a student at SirWinston Churchill Secondary School,won the award for her project on “Grasp-ing water: a novel method to make rainusing an ice nucleating protein”.

The Junior Water Prize was won byCeren Burcak Dag from Turkey, for devel-oping an innovative method for generat-ing energy through piezoelectric pulsesfrom falling rain drops. Emily Elhacemfrom Israel was also awarded a Diplomaof Excellence.

In her project, Mary found that cloudseeding using silver iodide can induceprecipitation in dry regions. Unfortu-nately, use of the iodide can lead to exces-sive silver in the soil which damages thehealth of micro-organisms. She exploredan environmentally friendly and commer-cial viable alternative to silver iodide: theice nucleating protein (INP) of the bacte-ria Pseudomonas syringae.

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Water and Wastewater Treatment

and industrial wastewater treatmentplants. In particular, significant contam-ination of ground and surface waters hasoccurred near fluoropolymer manufac-turing facilities and where fluorochemi-cals are used as surfactants in variousindustrial processes.

At some locations, contamination hasbeen so severe that dedicated treatmentfacilities were required by water utilities,and consumers were provided with bot-tled drinking water to reduce their expo-sure to PFAs.

Two major subclasses of the PFAs arethe perfluoroalkyl carboxylic (PFCA) andperfluoroalkyl sulfonic (PFSA) acids.

The PFAs exhibit dual hydrophobicand oleophobic character — the car-boxylic and sulfonic acid head groups arehydrophilic (water “liking”) while thefully fluorinated alkyl chain is oleophobic

Perfluorinated acids (PFAs) arean emerging class of environ-mental contaminants used in nu-merous industrial and consumer

products, from non-stick cookware andwaterproof textiles to electronics and fire-fighting foams. They are also present asa contaminant in many other fluorochem-ical products. They are largely resistant todegradation and, therefore, are foundwidely throughout the environment.

Commercial PFA products have beenlargely phased out over the past decade,but these compounds can also be formedby the degradation of other, similar com-mercial products. Thus, both historicaland current sources of contaminationoften need to be addressed.

PFAs are present in all aquatic sys-tems. The dominant source of thesecompounds is thought to be domestic

(fat “hating”). Both the PFCAs andPFSAs are relatively strong acids, al-though the PFSAs are significantlystronger (pKa values <0) than their PFCAcounterparts (pKa values between about0 and 4). The linear perfluorooctanoateand perfluorooctane sulfonate com-pounds, n-PFOA and n-PFOS respec-tively, are the most widely present in theenvironment.

Following is a short review of rele-vant and potentially effective treatmenttechnologies currently available for theremoval of PFAs from water and waste-water streams.

Treatment methodsThe treatment methods available for

perfluorinated compounds can be cate-gorized into several broad categories:thermolysis, direct photolysis andphotocatalysis, sonochemical, filtration,biodegradation, and other general tech-niques.1. Thermolysis - It is widely assumedthat PFAs are resistant to most treatmentmethods, including incineration. How-ever, many reports indicate that pyrolysis,for example, may be effective at degrad-ing mid- to long-chain compounds atmodest temperatures (180°C). This treat-ment technology may be effective forsolids combustion but not appropriate foraqueous waste streams containing PFAs.2. Direct photolysis and photocata-lysis - The direct photolysis of PFCAs isnot practical under conventional irradia-tion regimes as these compounds do notabsorb light at wavelengths greater than240 nm. (Natural systems typically expe-rience radiation at > 280 nm and watertreatment processes use > 254 nm.)While there is some absorption at normaltreatment wavelengths, the kinetics of theprocess are too slow (i.e., 90% loss after72 hours) to allow for effective treatmentwithin a conventional waste stream.

Photocatalysis involving productionof photogenerated species that then reactwith PFAs has been shown, similar to di-rect photolysis methods, to be moderatelyeffective at degrading PFAs. In particular,photoreduction of iron (III) in the pres-ence of oxygen is capable of slowly pho-tooxidizing PFCAs (90% loss after 32

How to remove perfluorinated acids from waterand wastewater streams By Kaya Forest and Sierra Rayne

The dominant source of these compounds is thought to be domestic and industrial wastewater treatment plants.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:08 PM



hours). Acidic conditions (pH 3.5 - 4)gave a 79% loss of n-PFOA after fourhours of irradiation with 254 nm light.

Photocatalysis, using other exotic,and not widely commercially availablecatalysts such as tungsten and gallium-based compounds, also exhibits slow ki-netic parameters unsuited to the shortresidence times present in most treat-ment systems. The well-known titaniumdioxide (TiO2) also reacts too slowlywith these compounds for practical ap-plication.3. Sonochemical - Sonochemical pro-cesses arise from acoustic cavitation,which involves the formation, growth andimplosive collapse of bubbles in a liquidthat produces large amounts of energy.Collapsed bubbles have temperaturesaround 5000ºC, pressures of roughly1,000 atm, and heating and cooling ratesabove 1010ºC/s.

Unlike many other degradation pro-cesses, sonochemical methods exhibitfavourable treatment kinetics with half-lives in the order of 40 and 20 minutes forn-PFOA and n-PFOS, respectively, underargon atmosphere. In aerated solutions,

the treatment process takes about twiceas long. The major degradation productswere shorter-chain PFAs (which are stillof concern), although complete mineral-ization to carbon dioxide, carbon monox-ide, fluoride and sulphate has beenobserved. Degradation rates increasewith increasing acoustic power densityand seem unaffected by scaling up to re-actor size.

Field application of sonochemicaltreatment methods has been used ingroundwater below a landfill in Min-nesota. Effective degradation kineticswere observed, which were enhanced byinjection of oxygen/ozone. Ozonolysiswas also shown to be an effective pre-treatment process to degrade volatileorganics that partially inhibit the effec-tiveness of sonochemical methods.4. Filtration - Reverse osmosis and nano-filtration using composite polyamidemembranes are capable of rejecting over99% and 90%, respectively, of 1,500-mg/L influent n-PFOS levels from indus-trial waste streams.

Isopropanol, a common cosolvent inthe electronic industry’s wastewaters,

was shown to inhibit removal efficiency,and would need to be removed via pre-treatment methods. Increasing n-PFOSconcentrations can lead to reductions inmembrane flux, which could be due inpart to entrapment of the compoundwithin the polyamide layer.

Investigations into non-amidic mate-rials may be able to minimize the inter-action of the proteinophilic n-PFOSwith the polyamide membrane. 5. Biodegradation - Biologically medi-ated degradation typically requires thepresence of a hydrogen atom on the car-bon backbone of long-chain organic mol-ecules. Since PFAs have fully fluorinatedalkyl chains, these perfluorinated mole-cules are largely resistant to microbialdegradation.6. Other - Reductive processes, such asthermal and pulse radiolysis that involvereaction of PFAs with hydrated electrons,have been shown to have fast reaction ki-netics (second-order rate constant of 106

mol/L·s). In contrast to the reactivity pat-terns for biodegradation, increasing fluo-rination of the carbon backbone enhances


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and branched PFA compounds can be al-tered using different electron energies.Much more research and development isneeded to control these processes better.

Sorption technologies are commonpractice for the treatment of many generaland specific waste streams. Granular andparticulate activated carbon are efficientat removing both n-PFOS and n-PFOA inconcentrations up to 100 mg/L in moder-ately acidic solution (pH about 4) withequilibrium loadings on to these media ofbetween 25 and 50 mg/g (sorption of n-PFOS up to 180 mg/g has been observed).

However, sorption equilibrium re-quires four hours (PAC) to one week(GAC), making these technologies notparticularly appropriate for flow-throughsystems or large-volume batch require-ments. Ion exchange columns have simi-larly effective removal efficiencies (up to99%) but slow equilibrium.

Some recent work on molecularly im-printed polymer (MIP) sorbents showspromise. A chitosan cross-linked MIPhad a highly selective sorption capacityfor n-PFOS of 300 mg/g with decreasingcapacity with increasing pH above 7. Thistechnology also exhibited slow sorptionkinetics (32 hours) but its high selectivityshould encourage additional research intofinding ways to bring the kinetics intoline with efficiencies needed for effectivelarge-scale treatment.

ConclusionsVarious treatment methods have been

examined for degrading PFAs. Most so-lution phase treatment methods display

relatively slow kinetic profiles, makingit difficult to design and optimize effec-tive PFA treatment approaches for wastestreams with short hydraulic residencetimes.

Filtration approaches can be effectiveat removing PFAs from aqueous streams,and could also be widely and rapidly in-tegrated into existing treatment trains, pro-vided no organic cosolvents are present.Sorptive processes require longer treat-ment times than is required for many otherorganic pollutants, but they have high PFAremoval efficiencies and appear to offersome potential for further optimization.

One of the most promising areas oftreatment technology is to take advantageof the known proteinophilic character ofPFAs. The design and application of pro-tein-mimicking sorbents to extract PFAsfrom aqueous solutions may be the mosteffective treatment solution.

Sonochemical treatment methodsalso appear promising, but additionalwork is required to assess the scientificand economic feasibility of their wide-scale deployment. Additional studiesneed to be conducted to better define op-portunities from evaporative, extractive,thermal, advanced oxidative, direct andcatalyzed photochemical, reductive andbiodegradation methods.

Kaya Forest is with Okanagan College.E-mail: [email protected]

Sierra Rayne is with Ecologica Research. E-mail:

[email protected]

the reactivity of these reductive treatmentmethods, making the approaches poten-tially very suitable for PFA treatment.

Reductive defluorination, using zerovalent metals in supercritical water, ex-hibits slightly slower reaction kinetics,but is not a treatment method readilyadaptable to flow-through wastewatersystems.

The reduction efficiency of thesemethods, because of the different possi-ble reaction mechanisms by which PFAswill degrade, appears to be influencedby the electron energy used. In particu-lar, the rates, mechanisms, products andrelative response of various chain length


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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:16 PM


Volunteering

from rural areas on the outskirts of Kigali,to the slums of Kigali itself. Rwanda hasthe highest population density in Africa.(The density of the entire country ishigher than that of the City of Ottawa!)There was a lot to cover in two weeks.

“Rwanda generally has a lot of water,most of the year. Unfortunately, there areextensive shortages throughout the dryseason, and contamination is also amajor problem.

“Most of the population in Kicukirogets water from community taps anduses some form of latrine, which areoften shared among several households.These latrines are often poorly con-structed and in horrendous condition.The taps draw water from wells, or arepiped in from a central source. Water

Around the world, 884 millionpeople do not have access tosafe drinking water and 2.5billion are without adequate

sanitation facilities. Every day, nearly6,000 people die from water-related ill-nesses, with the majority being children.However, Water For People has nowgiven the water and wastewater industrythe mechanism to make meaningfulchange with the development of theWorld Water Corps®.

The World Water Corps (WWC) waslaunched in 2006. It is a volunteer pro-gram that gives water and wastewaterprofessionals the opportunity to travelabroad and support the development ofsustainable drinking water projects, san-itation projects and hygiene educationprograms. The WWC is working in pro-gram evaluation, monitoring, mapping,and baseline assessment. Hydrology willbe added to their tasks in 2010.

Historically, Water For People (WFP)has operated in Bolivia, Guatemala,Honduras, Malawi and India but recentlythey have expanded their operations intoEcuador, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Uganda,the Dominican Republic and Peru.

Chris Rogers, a WWC volunteer,writes of his experiences in Rwanda:

“…the sole Canadian volunteer, I hadthe pleasure of working with a hard-working group of Americans and Bel-gians over a very intense two-week periodin February, 2009. We were each assigneda university student (all orphans of thegenocide), a group of local officials, and

a sector in Kicukiro district. Our dayswere spent in the field, inspecting waterand sanitation facilities, and interviewingcommunity leaders and members of thelocal population. Our nights were spentdocumenting our observations.

“Our field work exposed us to a rangeof generally miserable living conditions,

quality is unreliable, with suspectedcontamination from latrines and othersources. Those who can afford to, boiltheir drinking water. Many who can’t,get sick and tend to die young.

“One day I was waiting for my sectordriver to pick me up outside an orphan-age when I was swarmed by about 30kids on their way home from school.One pulled out a text book and beganteaching me to count in Kinyarwanda.They laughed a lot as I stumbled fromone to five.”

The WWC is not for everyone but, ifyou feel you have what it takes, WFPneeds you! Often, days are difficult anddealing with conditions in some of thepoorest areas of the world can be physi-cally and mentally straining. However, ifyou are up to the challenge you areguaranteed an experience you will neverforget.

For more information regarding the World Water Corps,

visit www.worldwatercorps.org or E-mail: [email protected]

World Water Corps helping to transform lives

A visit with the Virunga Mountain gorillas in northernRwanda.

The assessment team celebrates successful project completion in Kigali.

Our days were spent in the field, inspecting water and sanitation facilities, and interviewingcommunity leaders and members of the local

population. Our nights were spent documentingour observations.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:09 PM


Renewable Energy

such a project at its Woodward AvenueWastewater Treatment Plant. It was thefirst municipality in Ontario to receive ap-proval from the Ontario Electricity Finan-cial Corporation (OEFC) to build agenerator for sustainable green energy. Itis expected that the facility will help elim-inate about 130,000 tons of greenhousegas emissions over 20 years.

Wastewater treatment plants that pro-duce biogas typically do it for internaluse only. The potential to expand its usehas so far received little attention, eventhough there is an interesting opportu-nity for treatment plants to supply othersectors with heat, electricity and fuel forany number of uses.

Part of the appeal of the Green EnergyAct is that it now makes it possible forlocal distribution companies (LDCs) tobuild and operate small-scale (10 MW orunder) renewable energy facilities. Thispresents opportunities for investment in

With a view to kick-startinga green economy built onrenewable energy and adecentralized energy grid,

Ontario has moved swiftly this year topass the Green Energy Act. The provincehas made one thing clear: it wants toemerge as a leader in renewable energyproduction.

The effort is earning kudos from pro-ponents of solar and wind energy. Butthere is another type of renewable energythat stands to benefit from the new leg-islative framework: biogas from sewage.

The wastewater industry is discover-ing that wastewater can be a resource.Thanks to anaerobic digestion technol-ogy, cogeneration facilities can produceelectricity and hot water from biogas,rich in methane and carbon dioxide. Thebiogas is then combusted to produceelectricity or thermal energy.

In 2005, the City of Hamilton launched

combined heat and power projects. Ontario’s plan to build a “smart grid”

further encourages local participation inrenewable energy investment. The idea isto introduce a feed-in tariff (FIT), a fixedprice guarantee which can vary, depend-ing on the energy source, size and theproject’s location. The fixed rates are de-signed to encourage renewable energyprojects, by allowing investors to calcu-late returns and give them some certaintyover financing. The province’s 2009budget has also set aside $50 million forresearch, to foster new technologies anddevelop the province’s smart grid.

In practice, the renewable energy de-veloper would approach its LDC on elec-trical grid connection. Upon request, thedistributor must connect the generationfacility to its distribution system, pro-vided regulatory and Ontario EnergyBoard (OEB) license requirements aremet. But simply put, the grid playsfavourites to renewable energy, prioritiz-ing it over dirty power from coal andother sources. Surpluses are held oncredit at the LDC for one year.

It also helps that Ontario’s newframework is introducing a one-windowapprovals process with standardized re-quirements for renewable energy initia-tives, including solar, wind, and biogaspower generation projects. Until now,proponents were required to run afterdozens of approvals, among them cer-tificates for air and noise emissions.Also the law promises a six-month “ser-vice guarantee” for a final decision ontheir application.

Five regulations, in particular, are tobe amended:• Electricity Projects (Ontario Reg.116/01)• General - Revised Regulations of Ontario 1990 (Ontario Reg.334) • Waste Management Projects (Ontario Reg.101/07)• Classification of Proposals for Instruments (Ontario Reg.681/94)• General (Ontario Reg.73/94)

The MOE is also looking intochanges to Ontario Regulation 347 (Gen-eral - Waste Management) that would

Ontario’s new Green Energy Act makes energy frombiogas even more economically attractive

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:09 PM


Renewable Energy

ease the processing of biomass materialsintended for use in an energy generationfacility.

All these changes present wastewatertreatment plants with an enviable oppor-tunity. They possess a wealth of biomasssources in the form of municipal waste-water and solid waste. Until now, theMOE insisted that such residues betreated as waste. Suddenly, what was once

a costly management issue is becoming avaluable resource with the potential tocreate revenue and energy independencefor the wastewater treatment community.

Cities elsewhere, Lille in France, andOslo in Norway, for example, already relyon wastewater to produce much of thefuel used in their fleets of public transportvehicles. All of Lille’s buses run on bio-gas, which saves significant costs in pro-

cessing sewage and buying fuel. Ontario’s new framework has set the

stage for similar forward-looking initia-tives, should biogas producers seize theopportunity.

Yues Faguy is with Nimonik.ca.E-mail: [email protected]

Wastewater plants possess a wealth of biomass sources.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:09 PM

order a new system in time for the holi-days.

Downstream Defenders are anywherefrom four to 10 feet wide. They fit intocylindrical reinforced concrete man-holes. The support frame for the internalcomponents is made of 316 stainlesssteel. But when contractors dug a holeand inspected the Downstream De-fender, they found that the unit was ingreat condition even with the salt usedon the Scarborough retail lot during adecade of cold Canadian winters, andwith the vibrations of the passing carsabove.

Once the decision was made to movethe Downstream Defender to the new site,another unexpected obstacle emerged.The original contractor who installed the

He could follow the conventional ap-proach which was buying a new unit andinstalling it in the new location. How-ever, with the lucrative holiday shoppingseason coming up, the owner didn’t wantto disrupt traffic and sacrifice parkingcapacity. Buying a new unit would alsocost tens of thousands of dollars.

After discussing his options withGreg Jackson, of ACG Technology, andthe development owner, the contractorwas willing to try an unconventional ap-proach – to take the existing Down-stream Defender out of the ground andmove it to the new location after nearlya decade of service. The move wouldsave the project over $75,000. However,if the system was damaged during themove, there wouldn’t be enough time to


Stormwater Management

Scarborough is often describedas the greenest and leafiest partof the City of Toronto due tothe many creeks and tributaries

that run through the area. To protectthese creeks from harmful runoff, theCity keeps a tight rein on developmentprojects, requiring each to demonstratea high level of treatment for stormwaterflows.

The developer of a Lowe’s Home Im-provement store here faced these require-ments and opted to use a DownstreamDefender® vortex separator from HydroInternational to treat runoff from thesite’s parking lot. It was installed in 1999and, nearly a decade later, the treatmentdevice was uprooted from its locationunder the parking lot and reinstalled a fewhundred feet away. This required somecreative moves and a lot of care to meet astiff deadline.

After almost a decade, the store wasdemolished to accommodate a largerLowe’s store. While the parking lot andfoundation remained, the stormwatersystem could not, as stormwater regula-tions had become more stringent in the10 years since the original development.

In August 2006, the City of Torontoissued their interim wet weather flowmanagement guidelines, which requirethat new projects limit stormwaterrunoff from the site to pre-developmentlevels. This can often necessitate in-stalling an underground storage facility.

In order to avoid sediment accumu-lating in the storage unit, the Down-stream Defender needed be installedupstream, approximately 100 metresfrom where the original unit was located.The contractor faced a difficult situation.

Reusing 10 year old vortex stormwater separatorsaves over 75K

The riser section, nearly 2 metres high and weighing approximately 25 tons, isgently placed into a support crib, to avoid crushing the internal componentsthat project below the riser section.

The Downstream DefenderInside the rugged exterior, the Downstream Defender has internal components designed to advance vortex separation by

minimizing turbulence and headloss, increasing efficiency and preventing washout of stored pollutants. Stormwater is intro-duced tangentially into the side of the vessel, generating a rotating flow that spirals around the outside of the dip plate. Oils,trash and floatable debris rise to the water surface and are trapped in the oil and floatables storage volume.

As flow continues to spiral down around the dip plate cylinder, low-energy vortex motion directs sediment inward alongthe benching skirt and into the protected sediment storage zone. The benching skirt and centre cone redirect the rotating flowup and inward between the centre shaft and dip plate cylinder away from the stored sediment. The outlet pipe dischargestreated effluent from within the dip plate cylinder, ensuring the longest possible residence time. Advanced vortex separationis provided by extending and stabilizing the flow path while protecting trapped pollutants for a wide range of flow rates.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:09 PM


Stormwater Managementsystem had used carbon steel anchors toaffix the support frame into the precast.This meant that they were unable to re-move the support frame and internalsfrom the large section of precast concretethey were mounted to.

They decided to lift the entire 25-tonsection with the internals in place andstore it until they were ready to reassem-ble it in the new location using an 80-tonexcavator. When they took the piece outof the ground, part of the internals ex-tended below the concrete. If placed onthe ground the cone and shaft would becrushed. “Those components could notbe replaced,” said Jackson.

The developers had to figure out howthey were going to set the massive con-crete riser section on a surface that couldsupport it without letting key compo-nents touch the ground. In another un-conventional maneuver, the contractortook some timbers normally used forshoring up excavations and built a three-sided crib that would support the con-crete while the rest of the system wasabove ground.

After housing the unit above groundfor two days, they were able to place the

unit back in the ground without incident. Although it seemed improbable at the

onset, the unit was put in the ground inNovember, beating the Christmas rush.Nearly a year after the Scarborough in-stallation, the system continues to work

correctly. The Lowe’s project was com-pleted in June 2009.


Construction workers position the 40 ton excavator in preparation to lift a risersection with internal components, from the 10 foot Downstream Defender®.

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Wastewater

mosphere (it just requires the use of largeamounts of natural gas to capture it),phosphorus is mined at just a handful oflocations worldwide, primarily the UnitedStates, China and Morocco.

Today, Florida produces 75% of theUS’s and 25% of the world's phosphatewhich makes the United States the world's

Phosphorus is the currency ofenergy in every living cell. Ourability to provide enough foodfor the human population is de-

pendent on the use of artificial fertiliz-ers, which contain phosphorus, nitrogenand potassium.

While nitrogen is abundant in the at-

largest producer of phosphate rock. While it is possible to substitute re-

newable energy for fossil fuels, no othermineral can take the place of phosphorus.

While the timing for “Peak Phospho-rus” may be fifty, or even one hundredyears out, as with “Peak Oil”, it is not aquestion of if, but when. There are someindications that production has alreadypeaked in terms of the readily availableresources, while other estimates put this20 - 30 years out as illustrated in Figure1. There has already been considerablevolatility in phosphorus markets in thepast year, possibly related to volatility inthe energy market, and this has trickledthrough into food prices.

As with oil, there won’t suddenlycome a day when we ‘run out’ of phos-phorus. The quality of the reserves maystart to decline and it will become morecostly to access it. There are apparentlyvast phosphorus reserves on the seafloor, but again it’s an issue of the costof accessing these resources and thetechnology required to do so.

Environmental impact of phosphorus use

The widespread use of artificial fer-tilizers really took off after World WarII. This, coupled with the use of pesti-cides and herbicides and increased irri-gation, was responsible for what wasreferred to as the ‘Green Revolution’which has enabled food production tokeep pace with the addition of 4 billionhungry mouths to the world populationsince 1950.

Prior to the use of artificial fertilizersthere was a limited amount of phosphorusin circulation. Animal waste was appliedback onto the land as a means of recyclingnutrients. Annual herd migrations helped

Phosphorus may become a sustainability issue By Paul O’Callaghan


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Daily Load (TMDL). Under Section303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA),states are charged with first identifyingwaters within their jurisdiction that areimpaired and do not meet designatedquality objectives and then developingTMDLs to address the problems. For agiven water catchment, a TMDL for nu-trient addition is determined and this isthen typically translated into limits forpoint source emissions.

In Europe, the Urban WastewaterTreatment Directive sets limits for TotalNitrogen and Total Phosphorus on dis-charges for plants of various sizes, withtighter limits for plants discharging intosensitive areas.

Wastewater - a potential source of phosphorus

Conventional wastewater treatmentwill provide a degree of nutrient removal,in the region of 25%, as a portion of thenitrogen and phosphorus are taken up bythe bacteria which form the waste acti-vated sludge. However, without specificnutrient removal measures, secondarytreated wastewater still contains in the re-gion of 75% of the nutrients which were

move nutrients around. The carcassesfrom returning spawning salmon, for ex-ample, brought much needed nutrientsback into the upper reaches of rivers andstreams.

Now, however, we mine phosphorus,use it and disperse it widely across theplanet, much of it ending up in ourrivers, lakes and oceans. Large portionsof the earth’s oceans are now ‘deadzones’ as a result of nutrient enrichment.

The negative effects of nutrients onreceiving waterways are widely ac-cepted. The US Environmental Protec-tion Agency has identified excessivenutrient loading as the single largestcause of water quality impairment in theUnited States. A US EPA report in Feb-ruary 2009 listed 6,550 waterways asimpaired by nutrients and another 438by algal blooms.

In response to concerns regarding theeffects of nutrient enrichment, increas-ingly there is a requirement for wastewatertreatment plants to remove nutrients suchas phosphorus and nitrogen from treatedwastewater. In the US, this is dealt withbased on the principle of Total Maximum

present in the raw wastewater. The prevailing phosphorus removal

techniques are biological phosphorus re-moval and chemical precipitation. Bothapproaches take phosphorus out ofwastewater and partition it into sludges.Currently, the only way to recycle thephosphorus is to apply these sludges toland. The long-term prospects for apply-ing sludge to land are uncertain andchemically-bound phosphorus is notbioavailable to plants in any case.

This is leading to increased interestin phosphorus recovery in a reusableform. This is particularly evident in Eu-rope where rock phosphate deposits arenegligible. In 2006, 87% of the phos-phorus used in EU fertilizers was fromimported phosphorus, with only 13%coming from mined resources.

Wastewater and sewage sludge repre-sent a significant potential source ofphosphorus. If all of the phosphorusavailable in sewage sludge in the EU wasrecycled, this could provide 28% of theEU’s total phosphorus requirements.Sweden, for example, has mandated that“ 60% of phosphorus must be recovered

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:10 PM


at its wastewater treatment plants by2015.”

Every municipal wastewater treat-ment plant is potentially a ‘phosphorusmine’. Agricultural and industrial wastestreams are also potential ‘mines’. InCanada and the US, there are moves torecover phosphorus from wastewater.The City of Edmonton, Alberta, andClean Water Services of Portland, Ore-gon, have both commissioned plants

from Ostara Nutrient Recovery Tech-nologies which recover phosphorus asthe slow release fertilizer, struvite.

Phosphorus ‘mining’ could even startfurther up the wastewater chain, withsource separation. Urine accounts foronly 1% of the total volume of waste-water, but it contains up to 80% of allthe nutrients. If it is processed sepa-rately, wastewater treatment plants canbe reduced in size, water protection canbe improved, and nutrients can be recy-cled.

The Europeans are certainly leading

the way in this area. In Switzerland, tri-als with NoMix toilets have been quitesuccessful; apparently the majority ofthe Swiss people interviewed said theyhad no problem with it.

Developing technologiesThere are a number of companies

which are developing technologies toextract phosphorus and produce fertil-izer products:

1. Phosphorus recovery from sludgeand sludge ash - When sewage sludgeis incinerated, the resultant ash which isproduced can contain high concentra-tions of phosphorus, more than 10% byweight. Three processes which are beingdeveloped to try and recover phosphorusfrom sewage sludge ash are the Kemira,Seaborne and Sephos processes. Therehave been pilot plant installations for allthree processes.

2. Phosphorus recovery as struvitefrom sludge side streams - Struvite isthe common name for magnesium am-monium phosphate (MAP). Struvite canform naturally where it is least wantedand can cause problems in valves, pumps,

pipes and digesters. However, if it can be extracted from

sludge dewatering liquors, it can providea valuable, slow-release fertilizer prod-uct. This has led to the development ofa number of fluidized bed reactor tech-nologies to bring about struvite precipi-tation under controlled conditions andproduce a pelletised fertilizer product.

This helps to remove nutrients fromwastewater, but, rather than a wastesludge, it produces a value-added prod-uct. Examples of this technology are thePhosnix process, developed in Japan, theDHV Crystallactor process from DHV/ProCorp, and the Ostara process fromOstara Nutrient Recovery Technologiesof Vancouver, British Columbia.

Paul O’Callaghan is the founding CEO of O2 Environmental. E-mail:

[email protected]. Some of the material for this articlewas also published in O2Environ-mental’s book ‘Water Technology Markets – Key Opportunities and

Emerging Trends’.

Figure 1. Phosphorus production: When will it peak? (Source: whyfiles.org)

An element with an illustrious historyThe word phosphorus comes from the Greek word “phosphoros” which means to “have light”. The element was first discoveredin 1669 by Henning Brandt, a medieval alchemist from Hamburg, who first isolated it in pure form by extracting it from horse’surine while in search of the “Philosopher’s Stone”.

Later on, thermal treatment of bones from animals was used for phosphorus production. In the 1850s it started to be mined, and,indeed, there was the equivalent of a “gold rush” to Florida around that time as phosphorus reserves were discovered. Later itwas used in matches (‘luciphers’) and explosives, and, post World War II, its use in both pesticides and fertilizers has beenhugely important in increasing global agricultural output.

Wastewater

If all of the phosphorusavailable in sewage

sludge in the EU wasrecycled, this could

provide 28% of the EU’stotal phosphorus

requirements. Sweden,for example, has

mandated that “ 60% of phosphorus must be

recovered at its wastewater treatment

plants by 2015.”

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:10 PM

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 1:58 PM


Water Supply

the island. With moisture being broughtin by the prevailing trade winds from thenortheast, the windward side of the is-land receives a significant amount ofrainfall, whereas the leeward side expe-riences mostly arid conditions.

Over the years, companies began de-veloping ditch, tunnel and reservoir sys-tems to redirect water in order to satisfya growing demand on the leeward sideof the island. Considered an engineeringmarvel of its time, the diversion systemhas grown to the point that almost 274million gallons per day (MGD) of sur-face water are now diverted each year,with almost half of that water originatingfrom the eastern part of the island.

Aquifers under stressThe socio-economic development of

Maui, together with the diversion ofwater for agricultural production, is tak-ing its toll on the local aquifers. The ‘ÏaoAquifer System is the principal source ofdomestic water supply on Maui. With-drawals from this aquifer system totaledalmost 18.94 MGD in 2005, a significantincrease from the 10 MGD extracted in1970. The Hawaii State Commission onWater Resource Management (CWRM)

Maui, Hawaii, which is oftendescribed as paradise onEarth, is one of the mostdesirable tourist destina-

tions in the world. People flock to thesandy beaches, the stunning scenery andthe beautiful resorts every year to escapereality back at home.

But for those who call Maui home,their paradise is slowly turning into agrim reality. Despite the island’s aes-thetic appeal and tropical climate, theresident community on Maui, about185,000 people, is facing serious prob-lems with allocating and managing itsdiminishing water supply.

With a population expected to reach260,000 by 2030 and economic growthdriven by the expanding tourism sectors,there has been an overall increase in thedemand for water, which has become acontentious issue within the community.

Two large shield volcanoes, the WestMaui Volcano (West Maui Mountain)and the East Maui Volcano (Haleakalä),dominate the landscape and heavily in-fluence the local climate. These geolog-ical giants create a rain shadow thatcauses drastic changes in climate across

has determined the sustainable yield forthis aquifer is 20 MGD, which means itis operating at 95% of its sustainableyield. Other aquifers on the island arebeing exploited at almost 2,500% of theircapacity.

Furthermore, several United StatesGeological Survey studies have shownthat there is a historically declining trendin precipitation on Maui. With such alarge portion of the water supply de-pending on groundwater availability,which is mostly sustained by precipita-tion, declining levels of rainfall couldhave devastating effects on the island.Future projections for this precious re-source show decreasing supply and in-creasing demand, and demand couldeasily exceed supply before 2020.

The water system on Maui also holdsa strong cultural relevance and value tothe local population. The practice of cul-tivating taro, a traditional starch in theindigenous diet and a culturally signifi-cant crop, relies heavily on the availabil-ity of fresh, flowing water for optimalgrowing conditions. As water resourcesare being diverted from the streamswithin which this vegetable is grown,

An integrated assessment of water managementoptions on Maui

A view from Haleakalä Mountain (East Maui Volcano), the rainy part of the island, looking over the region of Hana. A fewtaro patches can be seen in the distance.

By Andrea Bassi and Rushil Mistry

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:11 PM


Water Supply

less water is available for production,and the taro crops are more susceptibleto malnutrition, disease and other ail-ments.

Planning for sustainable growthIn an effort to plan for sustainable

growth on the island, the Maui Eco-nomic Development Board entered intoa cooperative agreement with the Mil-lennium Institute to improve overall un-derstanding of the island’s water systemand to provide the community with atool to inform decision-making and sup-port policy formulation and evaluation.

By creating an integrated simulationmodel that captures the social, economicand environmental characteristics of theproblem, system-wide impacts of com-munity actions can be analyzed in a com-prehensive way and help to develop anunderstanding of the broader implicationsof the proposed policies and regulations.

The project employed a customizedversion of the Primary County Model(PCM) developed by the Millennium In-stitute. System dynamics were used asthe foundation for the customization ofthe model, to enable the examination ofcomplex, dynamic interrelationships be-tween water and other social, economicand environmental sectors. Specifically,a detailed model of the water sector wasconstructed to represent water demand

and supply on Maui. The distinctive characteristic of PCM

is the manner in which various determi-nants are linked together to form a com-plex link of feedback loops in which adhoc research and/or policies can then beanalyzed and weighted as driving or lim-iting the county’s development agenda.

To promote the community aspect ofthis process, a group-modeling sessionwas held on Maui that was attended bylocal stakeholders who were affected bywater and had knowledge of the issues,including farmers, landowners and otherconcerned citizens. Through this process,local needs and concerns were exploredand included in what can be called a sub-system diagram of the model, and thenincorporated into the actual model at alater stage.

After developing the model, scenar-ios relevant to the peculiarities of Mauiwere determined and processed to fosteran understanding of the impacts of dif-ferent policies and regulations being dis-cussed within the community. Whileaccounting for a decreasing trend in pre-cipitation, as well as a reduction in theannual number of visitors, the model an-alyzes the effects of in-stream flow reg-ulations, increases in water efficiencyand investing in increasing the supply ofwater through desalination.

Simulating interventionsTo introduce the working group to

the analysis that could be proposed tolarger community groups, a few sampleinterventions were simulated.

The first policy implemented in thescenario is the enactment of in-streamflow regulations. Following a series ofpublic hearings, the Commission onWater Resource Management has set reg-ulations on in-stream flow levels for 27streams, and is currently surveying over100 streams on Maui in an attempt to re-turn water to the original ecosystem. Forthe purpose of the simulation, an averagevalue of returning 2.4 MGD per streamis assumed over a potential 60 streams.

Furthermore, a 20% increase in thelevel of water efficiency by 2030 isadded to the scenario. With diversion in-frastructure having been implementedover 100 years ago in the agriculturalsector, there is a considerable loss withinthe system, as well as inefficienciesthroughout the process, including thesupply of potable water. Thus it was as-sumed that technologies or practiceswould be implemented to reduce the ne-cessity for water at the residential, com-mercial and agricultural levels over time,and by 20% in 2030.

The last policy measured within this


A local farm on the central, dry part of the island. Here, coconut, noni and a variety of flowering trees are cultivated. Themountain on the right is the base of the dry part of Haleakalä Mountain, and on the left, the other side of the ‘Ïao valleyon the West Maui Mountain can be seen.

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:11 PM


scenario is an investment in the con-struction of a desalination plant onMaui. For the purposes of the model, itis assumed that a plant will be developedthat can bring the levels of the centralaquifer system to its sustainable yield.

The aquifer system is currently beingpumped at 168% of its sustainable yield,which translates into 18 MGD above itsthreshold. Currently, a desalination planton Maui with an expandable capacity of5 MGD of useful water is being dis-cussed, with capital costs ranging aroundUS$50 million. Assuming that the excess18 MGD is satisfied with these plants, aUS$180-million investment is requiredin 2010 to increase water supply by 18MGD by 2012. It is assumed this is aone-time investment, requiring two yearsto reach full capacity and having a capi-tal lifetime of 30 years.

The results of the simulation providean insight into the system-wide impactsof implementing these policies and pur-suing these strategies to help mitigate therisk of a diminishing water supply on theisland.

For the purposes of the simulation,the results of this scenario are comparedto a baseline simulation, or business asusual, that only accounts for the decreas-ing trend in precipitation and annual vis-itor numbers adjusted for the declinedue to the 2008 economic crisis.

The impact on the demand for wateris directly affected by the increase in ef-ficiency throughout the simulation pe-riod and by the projected decline in

precipitation. Due to the increase in ef-ficiency, less water is demanded for thesame rate of use. With a 20% increase inefficiency by 2030 and a decline in pre-cipitation, there is a 5.3% drop in de-mand in 2015, a 9.4% reduction in 2020and a 16.5% decrease — 16.2 vs. 19.4billion gallons/year — by 2030.

Water supply in the alternative sce-nario will be mostly attained from desali-nation and groundwater use. Groundwaterproduction, as a share of total supply,moves from 80% in 2010 without anychanges, to 35% in 2012, thanks to the in-vestment in the desalination plant. Due toincreasing water demand over time,groundwater production grows back to54% by 2030. Desalination water produc-tion is able to satisfy about 45% of waterdemand in 2012 (74% of residential use),with the remaining 20% being producedfrom surface water.

Costs of desalinationAs more of the fraction of ground-

water production is satisfied by desali-nation, there is a cost associated withimplementing such a decision. First,there is an increase in electricity demand,caused by the 0.015 kWh/gallon used bythe desalination plant. Accounting for thecapital lifetime of the plant, almost 20MW of power generating capacity overthe 20-year simulation period will be re-quired, which could cost between $10million and $40 million, depending onthe energy source considered.

There are also environmental costs.When water is processed in a desalination

plant, liquid waste is created that containstoxic components; for every gallon ofuseable water generated, 1.4 gallons ofpolluted water are created. This results inapproximately 167 billion gallons ofwastewater created through 2030.

The initial cost of the desalinationplant is a major factor to be taken intoaccount. Currently, US$180 million isapproximately 50% of government ex-penditure and 15% of private investment,which shows the scale of undertakingsuch a project. If actions are taken to in-crease water supply to satisfy exceedingdemand, funding for such developmentsmust be readily available, which may notbe the case.

In-stream flow standardsFinally, the impact of imposing the

highly debated in-stream flow standardson Maui were analyzed. By restrictingwater available for commercial and agri-cultural sectors, there has been opposi-tion from local firms and businesses thatbelieve limiting the amount of wateravailable to them will result in fore-closures and a loss of jobs.

By enacting this regulation, there willbe a reduction of 2.5% of water allo-cated to irrigation compared to the base-line scenario in 2010. This will increaseto 9.8% in 2020, and reach 13.98% by2030. Thus, 54.74 billion gallons/yearwill be diverted by 2030.

The impact on the agricultural sectoris indicated by the change in revenuecompared to the baseline scenario. In2010, revenue is projected to decrease by

Water Supply

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:11 PM


2.51%, or US$3.2 million’00 (constantUS $ as of 2000), due to lower wateravailability, and reaches a reduction of9.87%, or $9.62 million USD’00 in2020. By 2030, the reduction in revenueis only 0.93%, at $560,272 USD’00, dueto the longer-term increase in water useefficiency.

When analyzing employment levels,jobs are strongly correlated to and influ-enced by the availability of water. Aswater levels fall, the number of jobs lostin the sector increases. In 2010, 41 jobsare lost, a reduction of 2.5%. In 2020,123 jobs are lost. The decline reaches itsmaximum rate in 2023 and then beginsto subside, with only seven jobs lost in2030, or a 0.98% reduction.

Water Supply

It should be noted that, due to thetrend of decreasing precipitation overtime, the agricultural sector is projectedto feel pressure throughout the simula-tion period, and the implementation ofin-stream flow regulations, for this rea-son among others, seems to reduce pro-jected revenues only marginally.

Even though agriculture makes up2% of the gross domestic product, theindustry has had its roots on Maui forover a century, so there would be strongcultural implications of negative effectson the sector, which might be put out ofbusiness by small variations in the statusquo due to fierce competition in theglobal sugar market.

Due to this outcome, and other con-

sequences that have implications on cul-tural sustainability, there needs to be acommunity dialogue to discuss thesepolicies and arrive at common solutionsto help facilitate the transition towards amore sustainable future. PCM-Maui canprovide valuable insights to policy mak-ers and local stakeholders, but can alsobe used as an effective tool to create andfacilitate a channel of communicationwithin the community.

Andrea Bassi and Rushil Mistry arewith the Millennium Institute. E-mail:

[email protected] [email protected]

A few patches of taro being grown in the central part of Maui Island. The taro grows under a few millimeters of cold,flowing water and is harvested for the root, which is used in a variety of cultural dishes and traditions.

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:16 PM


Water Reuse

For industrial facilities aroundthe globe, water quality andavailability have become criti-cal issues. Many engineers as-

sume that, if their facility cannot obtainfresh water, the only available processcooling technology option is a dry cooler.

Since low quality water (includingblowdown from cooling towers, RO,demin, boiler blowdown, treated waste-water, as well as reclaimed and producedwater) can be used as spray water makeup,even those sites with limited water avail-ability have a choice. Closed-loop, evap-orative cooling and condensing systemssuch as Niagara Blower’s Wet Surface AirCooler (WSAC™) optimize the use ofscarce and/or poor quality water re-sources. A plant can improve or increasecapacity by utilizing closed-loop coolingtechnology without having to purchaseadditional water or reduce existing freshwater usage.

Benefits of closed-loop cooling technology

Closed-loop, evaporative cooling andcondensing systems are an efficient al-ternative to dry cooling. The closed-loopsystem uses evaporative or latent (phasechange) heat transfer to remove theprocess heat, whereas dry coolers usesensible (no phase change) heat transfer.

For this reason, the closed-loop process

Drenching spray system.

Conserving water by using a closed loop recycling system

By Mark Vogel

outlet temperature with the closed-loopcooling system.

Since the closed-loop system is anevaporative cooling device, it will use aslittle as one fifth of the plant area re-quired for a dry cooler and require lesshorsepower to operate. Reduced horse-power leads to lower operating costs,less noise, and a lower carbon footprint.

outlet temperatures will approach the de-sign wet bulb temperature while the drycooler’s process outlet temperature will ap-proach the design dry bulb temperature.There is usually a large difference in thesetwo temperatures; a typical 85ºF dry bulbday at 60% relative humidity would have acorresponding wet bulb temperature of65ºF, allowing for a much lower process

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:11 PM


Water ReuseClosed-loop heat transfer surfaces re-

quire little or no maintenance. Tubes areall prime surface and do not utilize fins.Furthermore, the closed-loop coolingsystem uses widely spaced tubular sur-face coils, which are less prone to foul-ing and plugging.

Water efficiencyA closed-loop system rejects heat by

evaporation. The process fluid or vaporto be cooled or condensed flows throughclosed-loop tube bundles. Water fromthe unit basin is sprayed downward overthe tube surfaces while fans induce airflow over the bundles in a co-current di-rection. On the tube surface exterior,evaporative cooling occurs at the outsidewater film boundary. The saturated airstream leaving the tube bundle thenmakes two 90 degree turns into the fanplenum. The reduction in velocity re-turns most of the large water droplets tothe basin. The saturated air is then dis-charged through the fan stacks at highvelocity (1500 fpm).

Due to the closed-loop design, widetube spacing, and high drenching waterspray rate, low quality water (even con-taining suspended solids) can be used as

makeup water. Since the open-loop spraywater only passes over the tube exterior,it never contaminates the process stream.

A recent study was funded by theElectric Power Research Institute (EPRI)and the US Department of Energy(DOE) to validate water quality limits ina closed-loop, evaporative system. Unitperformance using different sources of

spray water makeup was monitored anddifferent tube materials (304SS, 316SS,titanium, etc.) were used. The test unitdemonstrated that existing cooling towerblowdown could be used in a closed-loop, evaporative system running 50+cycles of concentration with no degrada-tion in thermal performance.


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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:16 PM


Minimizing overall water useThere are several design options to

consider in order to reduce the overallwater use in a process cooling systemwhile still maintaining cooling effi-ciency:

1. Combining a closed-loop, evapora-tive system with a dry cooler is one op-tion. In this configuration, the dry coolercan accomplish the first part of the cool-ing or the highest temperature portion,and the closed-loop system can be usedas an efficient trim cooler to finish theremainder of the cooling and achieve thedesired process outlet temperature evenin the hottest ambient conditions.

This cooling combination can attainthe low process outlet temperatures thata dry cooler alone would have difficultyaccomplishing. The spray water can beturned off during colder ambient periodsto allow the dry cooler to do all the cool-ing without requiring any water.

2. A wet/dry closed-loop system isanother way to minimize water usage.With this design, widely spaced fins(four to five fins per inch) are used onthe tube bundle for strictly dry coolingor condensing during colder ambient pe-

riods. An optimal ambient temperatureis selected, below which the unit can berun completely dry. For instance, thesystem may operate dry at 80ºF dry bulbor lower and operate in the wet modewith spray water turned on when the am-bient dry bulb exceeds 80ºF. This can beeither on a seasonal basis or changedfrom day to night operating modeswhere dry bulbs may drop below 80ºF.

This system still has the advantage ofachieving low process outlet tempera-tures while realizing some of the foot-print and operating cost savings of a wetsystem. Wet/dry systems allow signifi-cant water savings while offering opera-tor flexibility in choosing whether to usewater, depending on ambient conditionsand the plant cooling needs at the time.

The importance of customizationWith a variety of tubing and other ma-

terials of construction available, eachclosed-loop, evaporative cooler or con-denser is custom-designed to fit a spe-cific heat transfer application whilemeeting the customer’s water limitations.To ensure the most efficient operation inall climates, design parameters are basedon customer specifications for process

inlet and outlet temperatures, weatherconditions on an annual basis, and spec-ified water limits.

Closed-loop systems can be designedand manufactured with a wide variety ofmaterials depending on water quality,water treatment, and cycles of concentra-tion. Closed-loop coolers and condensersvary in size from small, packaged, skid-ded units to large, field-erected systems.

ConclusionWater conservation will continue to

be a critical issue. Due to the innovativedesign and custom manufacturing capa-bilities, closed-loop, evaporative coolersand condensers can help maintain plantperformance while utilizing waterstreams that may currently be unusablewith other cooling technologies. Thesesystems offer many advantages for siteswith poor quality sources of makeupwater, including a reduction of plantfresh water makeup and the ability to re-duce plant wastewater.

Mark Vogel is with the Niagara Blower Company.

For more information, E-mail: [email protected]

Water Reuse

Water for PeopleCanada

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:16 PM

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Concrete arch bridgesStormwater solutions

Armtec provides awide range ofCONTECHstormwater qualitymanagement systems through-out Canada. Prod-ucts includeVORTECHS hydrodynamic

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ACG Technol-ogy’s packagetreatment sys-tem offers per-formance anddurability. Itprovides

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Package Treatment System Coalescing oil/water separators

ACG Technology’scoalescing oil/water separatorsare available incarbon steel, stain-less steel, FRP andpolypropylene con-struction. Standard

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The new Pelican 9430is a small, portable,battery-operated, main-tenance-free, LEDlight array with 2000lumens of brightness.It has a fully extend-able mast with a 360ºrotating head. It isrecharged with an inte-grated 110 VACcharger and can pro-

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Atlantic Industries Limited was selectedto help design and produce wildlife over-passes for the current phase of the Trans-Canada Highway twinning project inBanff National Park. Two large struc-tures have been created using AILSuper•Cor® high profile arches andMSE structural walls with precast con-crete panels. Tel: 877-245-7473Web: www.ail.ca

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Claessen Pumps

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Teams fromU WindsorEngineeringwon the topthree prizesin the 2009

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GENEQ has intro-duced its 2009-11EnvironmentalProduct Catalog.This 76 page cata-log is divided intosix sections: water,weather, air, soil,laboratory and mis-

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Ozonia NorthAmerica hasintroduced anew and effi-cient drinkingwater UV sys-tem. Designedfor medium tolarge munici-

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Using large diameter corrugated steelpipe under parking areas and play-grounds is a cost-effective way to meetreduced runoff and environmental re-strictions while allowing revenue pro-ducing services, recreation andcommercial development. Design soft-ware is available, FREE. Tel: 866-295-2416, Fax: 519-650-8081 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.cspi.ca.

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:13 PM

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IPEX

Fusible PVC™ pipe

Fusible PVC pipe isAWWA C900/905pipe joined in thefield using a spe-cially-designedbutt-fusion process.The result is amonolithic, fully re-strained PVC pipethat is perfectly suited for horizontal di-rectional drilling and other trenchlessapplications. Municipalities can stan-dardize on PVC throughout their sys-tems.

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Chemical-free water treatment

The JetMix Vor-tex Mixing Sys-tem can be usedin biosolidsstorage wheresolids suspen-

sion is important. Benefits of using theJetMix system include: Intermittent op-eration saves 60-90% in power con-sumption; expensive tank cleanout andscheduled maintenance not required;easily installed in existing tanks; multi-ple tank mixing using a central pumphouse. JetMix was a recipient of a 1997Innovative Technology Award from theWater Environment Federation. Tel: 519-469-8169, Fax: 519-469-8157 E-mail: [email protected]: www.greatario.com

Greatario Engineered Storage Systems

The YSIProODOTM hand-held DO meterprovides extremedurability for themeasurement ofoptical, lumines-cent-based dissolved oxygenfor any field application.

Web:www.hoskin.ca

Handheld DO meter

The YSI Profes-sional Plus hand-held multi-parameter meterprovides extremeflexibility for themeasurement of avariety of combi-nations for dis-solved oxygen,conductivity, spe-cific conductance,salinity, resistivity,total dissolved

solids (TDS), pH, ORP, pH/ORP combi-nation, ammonium (ammonia), nitrate,chloride and temperature.Web: www.hoskin.ca

Multiparameter meter

Hoskin Scientific

Hoskin Scientific

GTI’s modular floating cover systemscontrol algae and odors in tanks and la-goons. These durable, UV-protectedcovers can also be used to provide insu-lation. The covers can be installedquickly without disrupting plant opera-tions and are easy to maintain while inservice. They can safely support foottraffic and snow loads. Tel: 506-452-7304E-mail: [email protected]: www.gticovers.com

Geomembrane Technologies Inc.

Hetek Solutions

Floating cover systems

The DetectronicMultiSensorFlow Meter, aversatile ultra-sonic dopplerflow measure-ment system, isused in openchannels or par-tially-filled pipes.Designed to mon-

itor wastewater, industrial effluents andstormwater, its wireless data retrieval in-cludes universal roaming GSM withalarm outputs.Tel: 1-888-432-8422, Fax 519-453-2182E-mail: [email protected]: www.hetek.com

Flow measurement system

Heron Instruments

The Heron Con-ductivity PlusLevel and Tem-perature Meterenables accuratemeasurementsof conductivity,water level andtemperature in

wells, boreholes, stand pipes and openbodies of water. The Conductivity Pluscan be used to profile conductivity andtemperature to depths of 1,000 ft(300m).Tel: 800-331-2032, Fax: 905-634-9657E-mail: [email protected]: www.heroninstruments.com

Conductivity, level & temperature meter

H2Flow Tanks & Systems

Water reservoir & tank mixer

PAX Mixer is a very innovative, simplemixer designed to mix water storagereservoirs and standpipes. It offers supe-rior mixing performance with little en-ergy consumption, easy installation, lowcapital cost. It eliminates stagnation andstratification, minimizes residual loss,and prevents nitrification.Tel: 905-660-9775, Fax: 905-660-9744E-mail: [email protected]: www.h2flow.com

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Underdrain air/water backwash

Leopold Underdrain technology fromITT Water & Wastewater is a uniquewater recovery channel that allows abroader airflow range of 1 to 5 scfm/sf,improved air stability, continuously uni-form air flow, and lower water mal- distribution of less than 5% (total). Tel: 514-695-0100, Fax: 514-697-0602Web: www.ittwww.ca

John Meunier Inc. Myers Engineered Products

ProMinent Fluid Controls

Metering pumps

Feature-richand dependableSigma seriesmeteringpumps fromProMinent helpkeep yourchemical feedunder control.

Sigma pumps operate in capacities of upto 1000 LPH and pressures up to 174psi. Microprocessor controls are easy touse, with backlit LCD for rapid and reli-able adjustment.

Tel: 888-709-9933, Fax: 519-836-5226E-mail: [email protected]: www.prominent.ca

ProMinent Fluid Controls

Metering pump

The award-winningdelta® withoptoDrive®provides di-verse controland operatingcapabilities ina capacity

range of 7.5 - 75 l/h, 362 psi - 29 psi.The delta from ProMinent has many ad-vanced features: pulsed or continuousdosing; automatic detection of airlock,low pressure and high pressure; and anautomatic degassing option.Tel: 888-709-9933, Fax: 519-836-5226E-mail: [email protected]: www.prominent.ca/delta

SAF-T-FLO Chemical Injection manu-factures a complete line of chemical in-jection equipment for all types ofchemical feed systems. A large inventoryof retractable and non-retractable injec-tion quills and sampling probes are avail-able to meet your needs. In addition,experienced technical sales staff can an-swer your questions or help solve yourproblems. Tel: 800-957-2383, Fax: 714-632-3350E-mail: [email protected]: www.saftflo.com

Chemical injection equipment

SAF-T-FLO Chemical Injection

John MeunierInc. has intro-duced its latestdevelopment invortex grit re-moval tech-nology: the

MECTAN 360 design. This new productcapitalizes on more than 40 years of ex-perience and includes the latest findingsoffered by computational fluid dynam-ics (CFD). This technology offers bothflexibility and outstanding hydraulic per-formances while maintaining state of theart grit removal efficiencies.Tel: (514) 334-7230E-mail: [email protected]: www.johnmeunier.com

Vortex grit removal

Satisfying pumping needs at the lowestcost over the life cycle of the system,Myers optimizes system efficiencieswith complete engineering services,providing cost-effective solutions andimmediate cost savings when planning apump station. Myers software programsprovide the engineering tools to prop-erly design the ideal station. Tel: 604-552-7900, Fax: 604-552-7901E-mail: [email protected]

Pumping systems solutions

The Helisieve® Fine Screen combinesscreening, conveying and dewateringinto one reliable, automatic, compactand cost-efficient system. Shaftless spi-ral technology helps dewater screeningsup to 30% dry weight to lower disposalcosts, and the spiral is enclosed to mini-mize odors.Tel: 514-636-8712, Fax: 514-636-9718 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.parkson.com

In-Channel Fine Screen

Sanitherm hasperfected con-tainerizing theirSaniBrane®MBR. The containerizedSaniBrane isportable, providesexcellent effluenton start-up, is op-

erator friendly and comes pre-wired, pre-plumbed and tested. The system foranywhere needing reliable waste treat-ment with a small footprint!

Tel: 604-986-9168, Fax: 604-986-5377E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.sanibrane.com

Membrane bioreactor

Sanitherm Inc. Sapphire Group

BTP plants

Sapphire is the exclusive representativefor the Resetilov Biological TreatmentProcess wastewater package plants inCanada. These BTP plants are ex-tremely popular in Europe and can han-dle high flow volumes within a verysmall footprint. These plants produceexceptional effluent quality, are inex-pensive and easy to operate. Tel: 403-537-8470, Fax: 403-537-8479 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.sapphire-group.ca

Parkson

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Solinst Canada

Solinst Canada Ltd.

Waterra PumpsWaterloo Barrier

Remote water level monitoring

Built for Solinst Leveloggers, the systemprovides reliable remote site data collec-tion, using radio, cellular and satellitecommunication. Intuitive softwaremakes for simple setup, operation, anddata management.Tel: 905-873-2255, Fax: 905-873-1992E-mail: [email protected]: www.solinst.com

Sustainable Development Technology Canada

Cleantech funding available

If you havean innovativeclean technol-ogy, SustainableDevelopment

Technology Canada (SDTC) wants tohear from you. The SD Tech Fund™ isopen for Statements of Interest fromSeptember 2 to October 21, 2009. SDTCsupports the development and demon-stration of clean technologies by Cana-dian companies. Visit the fundingsection of our website for more inform-ation on how to apply.Tel.: 613-234-6313, Fax: 613-234-0303E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.sdtc.ca

Smith & Loveless

Treatment parts catalog

Smith & LovelessInc. has released itsFall 2009 Treat-ment QuarterlyParts Catalog. It in-troduces the newPISTA® 360™ GritRemoval Systemwith patented V-Force Baffle™.The catalog offers a

detailed guide to grit testing and includesa variety of case studies on cross-channelsampling. For a downloadable copy, visitwww.smithandloveless.comTel: 913-888-5201, Fax: 913-888-2173E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.smithandloveless.com

Water level meters

Solinst Model 102 Coaxial Cable WaterLevel Meters now have accurate lasercable markings every 1/100 ft or mil-limeter. Providing Solinst quality at alow price, they have narrow probes and adurable, flexible cable, mounted on asturdy reel.Tel: 905-873-2255, Fax: 905-873-1992E-mail: [email protected]: www.solinst.com

Smith & Loveless

Wastewater Pump Stations

Energy-saving Smith &Loveless wastewaterpump stations are idealfor collection systemand WWTP influentpumping for municipali-ties, private develop-

ments and industry. Proven lift stationdesigns minimize delays because S&Lstations arrive at the jobsite completelybuilt and thoroughly factory-tested. Nowavailable with expanded pump sizing: 4"- 12" piping (100-300 mm); horsepower:1.5 to 300 HP; capacity: up to 50,000GMP (3155 lps).Tel: 913-888-5201, Fax: 913-888-2173E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.smithandloveless.com

Waterloo Barrier is alow permeability cutoffwall for groundwatercontainment and con-trol. It is a new design ofsteel sheet piling, fea-turing joints that can besealed after the sheets

have been driven into the ground, andwas developed by researchers at the Uni-versity of Waterloo. It has patent/patentpending status in several countries.Canadian Metal Rolling Mills assisted indeveloping the product. Tel: 519-856-1352, Fax: 519-856-0759 E-mail: [email protected]: www. waterloo-barrier.com

Controlling contaminated groundwater

Waterloo Biofilter

Trickling filters

Waterloo Biofilters® are efficient, modulartrickling filters for residential and commu-nal sewage wastewaters, and landfillleachate. Patented, lightweight, syntheticfilter media optimize physical propertiesfor microbial attachment and water reten-tion. The self-contained modular design forcommunal use is now available in20,000L/d and 40,000L/d ISO shippingcontainer units - ready to plug in on-site. Tel: 519-856-0757, Fax: 519-856-0759E-mail: [email protected] Web: www. waterloo-biofilter.com

Tamper-Proof

Waterra's Grip 'nLock is the onlyhinged, lockingwell cap — and theonly truly tamper-proof well capavailable on themarket today. Constructed fromheavy duty UV

resistant nylon, this cap is quickly andeasily installed onto 2" and 4" moni-toring wells by simply pounding it ontothe well casing with a mallet. Once installed, it cannot be removed.

Tel: 905-238-5242, Fax: 905-238-5704E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.waterra.com

USF Fabrication

Hatch safety netThe lightweightHatch Safety Net isdesigned to be per-manently installedand easily re-tractable in floorand roof openings where the risk of fallthrough is present. When closed, thenet system allows people to movefreely around confined space openingswithout fear of falling into the opening.It also allows visibility of inspectionsand accessibility for limited mainte-nance and float adjustments. Whenentry/exit is required, the net can beeasily unhooked on all but one side ofthe opening. Tel: 604-552-7900, Fax: 604-552-7901E-mail: [email protected]

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:14 PM


NOV. 25

ENVIRONMENTAL

COMPLIANCEESSENTIALSFor SUPERVISORS, MANAGERS & PRACTITIONERSNovember 25 - 27, at the Mississauga, Ontario, Grand Banquet &Convention Centre. Three proven courses to ensure environmentalcompliance and due diligence at your facility!

Environmental Regulation & Compliance

NOV. 26 Dealing with industrial AIR and GHG emissions, 2009

NOV. 27 Managing Certificates of Approval and Permits, 2009

march 24–26vancouver convention centre, canada

11TH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE & TRADE FAIR ON BUSINESS & THE ENVIRONMENT11,000 participants, 2,000 conference delegates, 450 exhibitors, 70 countries represented, 1 opportunity not to be missed

Global Opportunities in a Low Carbon EconomyGLOBE™ – the foremost North American gathering of global senior business and government leaders who meet biennially to network, explore the issues at the heart of sustainable development, and cast a spotlight on the world’s most innovative environmental technologies. Every two years, over 11,000 people converge in Vancouver to attend the GLOBE Conference & Trade Fair featuring 200 expert speakers, 50 sessions, and a trade fair of over 450 exhibits.

globe2010.com Presented by:

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For further information, please contact: Judy Earl, Envirogate Event Management,Tel: 416-920-0768, Fax: (416) 920-0620, E-mail: [email protected]

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:16 PM


NEWS

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U of Windsor teams sweep competition

The focus of faculty and students, cou-pled with support from the community,helped three teams from the University ofWindsor finish atop a national designcompetition.

David Penny, of the Corrugated SteelPipe Institute, which created the contest,was on campus recently for a formalpresentation of the awards to the winningteam members. First prize, with a cashaward of $2,500, went to Matt McColl,Daniel Nunn, and Yefu Zhang. Secondprize, with a cash award of $1,500, wentto Fadi Darsa, Jorge Silva, Yue Wang, andYangFeng Yu. Third prize, with a cashaward of $500, went to Christina Govas,Jeff Lerch, Russel Mailloux, and PatriciaWilbur.

The entries were conducted by the stu-dents as their fourth-year capstone proj-ects. Govas said the capstone project isthe closest thing to conducting profes-sional practice. "You have to apply every-thing you have learned in class, plus youhave to do research, plus you have to talkto people," she said. "It pushes you to un-derstand the entire scope of the project.There is a lot of responsibility."

Civil and Environmental Engineeringprofessors Barbara Budkowska, Shao-hong Cheng, and Sreekanta Das acted asfaculty advisors to the teams.

Former OWWA Chair receives Wolman Award

Jim Craig, a past Chair of the OntarioWater Works Association (OWWA) hasreceived the prestigious 2009 Abel Wol-


(Back row from left) Russel Mailloux,Christina Govas, Jeff Lerch, and Patri-cia Wilbur; (middle row) Fadi Darsa,YangFeng Yu, and Jorge Silva, (miss-ing: Yue Wang); (front row) Matt McColland Yefu Zhang (missing: Daniel Nunn).

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:15 PM


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NEWSman Award of Excel-lence. Presented annu-ally by the AmericanWater Works Associa-tion (AWWA) theWolman Award recog-nizes outstanding con-tribution to the drinking water industryover an extended period. (Minimum 20year career). Jim was presented with hisaward at the AWWA annual conferencewhich was held in San Diego in June.

Jim, now retired, was a long-time em-ployee of the Peterborough UtilitiesCommission where he became WaterUtility Director. Jim received the highestOWWA award, the Fuller Award, in 1988.As winner of the Wolman Award, Jim be-comes only the second Canadian to be sohonoured by the AWWA. Steve Bonk,from Ottawa, was the award recipient in2004.

CH2M HILL women work for Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region(HFHWR) launched its 2009 From Saw-dust to Sparkles Women’s Build Eventearlier this summer. This is the first suchproject since 2000. This event is espe-cially geared to encourage women tocome out to the build site to take an activerole in increasing Waterloo Region’s sup-ply of decent, affordable housing. To-gether, women participants help make thecommunity stronger by transforming thesawdust of construction into a sparklingnew home for a deserving family.

The Women of CH2M HILL’s Kitch-ener-Waterloo office jumped at the chanceto pick up a hammer and “sparkle”. On

CH2M HILL Women’s Build Team:

(back row from left) Jillian Werner, Va-

lerie Dyet, Diana Vangelisti, Naz Ritchie,

Sally Baldwin, Darlene Lamarre; (front

row) Monique Waller, Kathleen Hum,

Mary Kennedy, Jen Caron.

“Specialists in non-intrusive ground investigations”

• UST's, buried metal, debris & fill

• Former excavations & structures

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/29/09 10:12 AM


NEWS

Consulting Engineers

Hydromantis, Inc.Hydromantis, Inc.Experts in Water, Wastewater, Environmental Planning, and Simulation Software

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P: 519-763-0700 F: 519-763-6684150 Stevenson Street, South Guelph, ON N1E 5N7 www.insitucontractors.com

• Dewatering systems• Mobile groundwater treatment systems• Well and pump installation and maintenance• Pump, filter, generator rentals• Sediment tank rentals• Insitu groundwater remediation systems

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Friday July 10, 2009, ten women were onsite installing insulation board, cappingwalls, hoisting roof trusses, and wrappingvapour barrier around a three bedroomtownhouse unit that will provide a homefor a family with young children.

ICJ hearings begin

The International Court of Justice in TheHague, The Netherlands, is hearing threeweeks of final arguments in a closelywatched dispute over sustainable devel-opment between the nations of Uruguayand Argentina over a paper mill on theUruguay River. The case is only the sec-ond environmental dispute to be decidedby the ICJ, and the first since the 1990s.

Arguments will be heard by 17 judgesfrom around the world, who are expectedto issue a decision sometime next spring.Argentina first brought the case in May2006. The Uruguay River forms part ofthe border between the two nations, andArgentina argues that the mill, inUruguayan territory, releases harmfulcontaminants into the river as part of theproduction of pulp used in the manufac-ture of paper.

Uruguay contends that the mill, ap-proved through a thorough permittingprocess and built by a Finnish company,is a model of eco-responsibility that hasnot damaged water quality or aquatic life.

Uruguay won the first round beforethe ICJ, which by a near-unanimous votein July 2006 refused to order that con-struction of the mill be halted. The facil-ity opened in November 2007 and hasbeen operating for nearly two years.

The mill, funded through the Interna-tional Finance Corporation arm of theWorld Bank, was also subject to a rigor-ous environmental review and approvalprocess at the IFC. The mill is the largestforeign-investment project in Uruguay’shistory.

Water reuse identified asgrowth opportunity

Water industry leaders met July 20 on theshores of Lake Michigan at Water Sum-mit III: The True Costs and Opportunitiesof Water, hosted by the Milwaukee 7Water Council.


ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:15 PM


Assaf Barnea, CEO of Kinrot Ven-tures, Israel’s leading seed investor inwater and clean-tech related technolo-gies, was the Water Summit’s keynotespeaker. He reflected on how the staidwater industry was suddenly and dramat-ically transformed by the compellingevents of 2004.

“The race started when General Elec-tric purchased Ionics and Zenon Environ-mental of Canada, and Siemens purchasedUS Filter,” said Barnea. “These giants de-clared water is here to stay and companiesoutside of the industry took notice. In2008, water was a $450 billion industry. Itis the fifth largest industry in the world andit is growing between 7% and 8% a year.”

Barnea explained that world demandfor freshwater is increasing at an evenfaster rate than global population growthand it is creating severe water shortagesin many regions. Water scarcity will drivechange to many accepted practices preva-lent throughout the water industry.Reusing wastewater will become muchmore common and the new technologiesthat make it possible will be adopted andgrow.

“Reuse of water averages only 5%worldwide,” said Barnea. “In spite of itswater shortages, the City of Los Angelesreuses only 1% of its water. However, inIsrael we’ve been using 75% of our waterfor our agriculture.”

Water industry urgedto rise aboveprotectionist

attitudes

Dan McCarthy, President and CEO ofBlack & Veatch’s global water business,advocates continued international collab-oration and cooperation by the water in-dustry despite protectionist approachesadopted by the United States which are be-coming more prevalent in other countries.

“As industry leaders, we didn’t start thefight,” McCarthy said. “But we must winit by continuing to promote a global per-spective that moves beyond isolationism.”

In his paper, McCarthy notes that eco-nomic problems have fueled protectionistattitudes not only in large water andwastewater markets like the United Statesand China, but also in smaller markets

NEWS

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:15 PM


like Canada. He expresses concern thatthe American Recovery and Reinvest-ment Act of 2009 (ARRA) may havedone more harm than good for the USwater/wastewater industry by providingmuch less stimulus money than needed toaddress infrastructure needs and madeless than by what may be lost as othercountries respond to the “Buy American”legislation.

McCarthy points out that increasingprotectionist measures and potential re-taliation threaten to undo the industry’sstrides to look beyond borders in address-ing water and wastewater issues.

The paper includes additional infor-mation and insights about ARRA and re-lated waivers, the recent “Buy Chinese”edict, and retaliatory protectionist actionunder consideration in Canada. Mc-Carthy calls for water industry leaders to“refuse to resurrect barriers that it hastaken years to break down.”

McCarthy’s white paper “Water Didn’tStart the Fight: Potential Impact of Pro-tectionist Attitudes on Water/WastewaterIndustry,” is available at www.bv.com/Downloads/Resources/Reports/20090831_WaterDidntStartTheFight

OCWA to continue partnership with Peel

The Ontario Clean Water Agency(OCWA) will continue to operate, main-tain, and manage the South Peel Waterand Wastewater Treatment System undera renewed 10-year agreement valued at$447 million.

OCWA has been managing the SouthPeel system since the 1950s. In 1999,OCWA was the successful respondent toPeel Region’s competitive process for op-erations and maintenance managementservices. Since then, the four Peel facili-ties and the distribution system have beenextensively expanded and upgraded toaccommodate regional growth. Advancedtechnologies have been introduced in allthe facilities in response to industrychange and to meet new legislative de-mands.

The system includes some of the mostsophisticated facilities in North Americaincluding the Lakeview Water TreatmentPlant, which is one of the world’s largest


NEWS

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King City, OntarioCANADA

tel: +1.905.833.6738fax: [email protected]

Consulting Engineer

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:15 PM


membrane treatment facilities, and theG.E. Booth Wastewater Treatment Facil-ity, which includes the world’s largestbiosolids facility of its kind.

www.ocwa.com

HOBAS Pipe USA celebrates 25 years of

successful growth

A quarter of a century ago, after 25 yearsof being manufactured and widely used inEurope, HOBAS pipe was introduced tothe United States. Today, it can be foundin most US municipalities and its use isexpanding faster than ever. There are44,000 miles of the pipe in service glob-ally including 5.3 million feet in the US.

HOBAS Pipe USA is noted for re-sponsive customer service and on-sitefield reps backed by extensive engineer-ing support. HOBAS manufactures pipein sizes from 18 inches to 110 inches inpressure and non-pressure classes.

www.hobaspipe.com

Temcor, Inc. acquired byCST Industries

CST Industries, Inc. (CST) has acquiredTemcor, Inc., which designs, manufac-tures and erects clear�span aluminumdomes and specialty covers for energy,infrastructure, water and wastewater ap-plications.Temcor is the largest alu-minum dome provider in the world withover 7,500 structures installed in 72countries.

CST Industries, headquartered inKansas City, has built an extensive portfo-lio of brands and products for critical stor-age requirements, including ColumbianTecTank, Engineered Storage Products,Conservatek Industries, Inc. and CSTVulcan, Inc.

www.tanks.com

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Supporting our Nation's Infrastructure for over 100 years by Building Canada's most reliable Standby Generator Battery Chargers.

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NEWS


Toxic chemicals in everyday products

Using an XRF analyzer, researchers at theEcology Center have analyzed the ingre-dients of over 900 common products, in-cluding pet supplies, cars, women’shandbags, children’s car seats and more.They have created a large database of in-dependent tests of consumer goods fortoxic chemicals including lead, cadmium,mercury, bromine, chlorine (PVC) and ar-senic.

HealthyStuff.org tested for chemicalsbased on their toxicity, persistence andtendency to build up in people and the en-vironment.

“The more we test, the more we findthat the presence of toxic chemicals iswidespread in everyday consumer prod-ucts,” said Jeff Gearhart, Research Di-rector at the Ecology Center, who createdthe site. “It should not be the responsi-bility of public health advocates to testthese products. Product manufacturersand legislators must take the lead and re-place dangerous substances with safe al-ternatives.”

Following are the key findings fromthis research:• Automobiles – HealthyStuff.orgtested nearly 700 new and used vehi-cles, from 1980 to 2010 model years.Levels of some chemicals found in ve-hicles are 5-10 times higher than inhomes or offices. Since the averageAmerican spends more than 1.5 hoursin their car every day, this can be amajor source of toxic chemical expo-sure. The US-made Pontiac G5 andChevy Cobalt rated best overall 2009vehicles.• Children’s Car Seats – Infant andchild car seats contain chemical addi-tives that can have adverse health effectson babies and young children. Over half(58%) of car seats contain one or morehazardous chemicals, including PVC,BFRs and heavy metals. Three exam-ples of car seats that had none of thechemicals tested for are: Baby TrendFlex-Loc; the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 CarSeat; and the Graco Turbo Booster. • Back-to-School Products – over 60common back-to-school supplies weretested, including backpacks, pencilcases, binders and lunchboxes. Far too

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ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:17 PM


erage. The results are not promising de-spite the heroics and demonstrations.So many teenagers casually throw theircoffee cups, pop cans and chocolatewrappers onto public sidewalks and, inmany instances, onto parkland.

Swimming in water can be elegantand healthful. Regrettably and increas-ingly, both the physical and aquatic en-vironments give serious warningsexpressed through the toxic graffitifrom our wasteful lifestyles. Plasticwrapping ends up even in large oceansin volumes large enough to seriouslydamage aquatic life - such a large priceto pay for that ten minute coffee breakusing cups which may last as long asthe pyramids.

Ironically it would cost far less – inmonetary terms, not to mention theenormous costs of environmental re-mediation and extended health care – tocontrol toxicity at the source as an inte-gral part of manufacturing. Our globe’sgenerous capacity to absorb and purifywastes naturally has led to chronicabuse. Even the vast waters of the Pa-cific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans canno longer digest the current rate of dis-charges.

Regrettably, our industrial effluentsand domestic garbage increasingly haveno place to hide. And, for that matter,neither have we swimmers.

Tom Davey is co-founder ofEnvironmental Science & Engineering Magazine

E-mail:[email protected]

learn from swimming. While humansare some 80 percent water, we cannotlive long beneath its surface; nor canwe live long without water. In fact, wecan live much longer without food thanwater. And water has great economicvalue. Virtually all great cities, London,Paris, Rome, New York, Sydney, Mon-treal, Toronto and Vancouver, all grewaround fresh water bodies or oceans.

In addition to the enormous com-mercial value of water, its aesthetic val-ues also translate into monetary values.Houses with good views of water - bethey ocean, lake, river or stream - com-mand vastly higher prices than land-locked real estate. It is as though we arestill directly connected to the waterfrom which our life emerged billions ofyears ago.

Now, quite literally, water bodiesaround the globe are vomiting back thetoxic brews contained in our industrialeffluents, and regrettably, our domesticgarbage. Nor is the environmental dam-age confined to mining and manufac-turing. Our addiction to shopping andrapid changes in tastes results in themassive discarding of waste products.Ironically I think the styrofoam, plasticbubble wrap and diverse other parts ofindustrial packaging, might equal thedangers lurking in poorly maintaineddrinking water and wastewater treat-ment plants and industrial waste han-dling and disposal.

This generation is the first to bealerted to environmental toxicitythroughout their schooling, backed upwith massive and protracted media cov-

At a recent swim meet, Iwatched admiringly asswimmers dived into thepool and their crawl stroke

transformed the placid blue water intoturbulent white foam as the leaders, likemigrating birds, formed a V shape asthey approached the end of the pool.With a slight turn of the head swimmersbreathed in the aquatic troughs theirstrokes made in the water as their armsmoved, elegantly and ergonomically, asthey pulled through the water.

Reflecting on this race made methink how much swimming is analo-gous to poetry. While some powerfulswimmers use brute energy to bash -and thrash - themselves through thewater, it is usually elegance which al-lows swimmers to draw ahead in thefinal metres of competitions. Eleganceis also aquatically ergonomic and thevalue of style is even more marked inlonger distances such as the 200, 500and 1,500 metre events Even the breaststroke, which, ostensibly, relies on jerkyarm movements and frog-like scissorkicks, can still attain a fluidity of mo-tion which seems to favour the morestylish swimmers.

Water is a yielding substance, whichhas immutable rules defined by thelaws of physics. A clean dive from a tenmetre platform enables divers to knifeinto the water with astonishingly littlesplashing or pain to the diver. But todive badly from the same height feelslike being struck on the head as if witha wooden spar.

Environmentally, we have much to

Elegant swimming contrasts with toxicity ofconsumerism Comment by Tom Davey

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 9/28/09 12:17 PM

ES&E Sept09_4:2009 22/09/09 11:17 PM

Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine September 2009

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Transcript of Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine September 2009