Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - January 2003
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North Bay students represent Canada at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition

by Steve Davey,
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presents award to Alex Omiccioli.
Richard Miron receives his award from HRH Princess Victoria.

Two North Bay, Ontario, highschool students, Richard Miron and Alex Omiccioli, were amongst the 45 entries at the 2002 International Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition (SJWP) held in August, 2002. SJWP is considered the world’s most prestigious water science prize awarded to youth.

First place went to Katherine Holt from Virginia, for her project “Cleaning the Chesapeake Bay with Oysters.” This international award includes a crystal sculpture and $5,000 US. It was presented by HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, patron of the SJWP.

For their project, Richard and Alex set out to test the water quality of Trout Lake, North Bay. The City of North Bay is considering filtering its water supply because it is unsure of the continued water quality of its main reservoir, Trout Lake. This study suggests that the water intake be moved closer to the 68m Basin to access extremely high quality raw water. Continued treatment of raw water using chlorination and ultraviolet light, may well meet all the Ontario Drinking Water Objectives and thus save the City millions of dollars in filtering costs.

The students found that the microbiological assemblage method for characterizing water supplies is a much more accurate and reliable indicator than the MOE’s physical chemical characterization (phosphorus tests). Based on this finding, they designed a cost-effective, highly efficient sampler. They call the system CAST (Chironomid Algonquin Sampling Technology.)

Larry Madden of C&M Environmental Technologies, Chair of the Canadian Stockholm Junior Water Prize (CSJWP) was instrumental in paving the way for Canadian entries in Stockholm. “This is the second year we have been able to send a Canadian entry to the competition, and we hope to be able to continue to do so for many years to come”, he said.

Abridged

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