Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - January 2004
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Environmental News - January 2004
Kruger selects John Meunier for paper mill
Kruger Inc. of Montreal selected John
Meunier Inc. to provide high-purity
water for a new coated paper machine
at the Kruger Wayagamack mill in
Trois-Rivičres, Quebec; this is part of
a $416 million modernization project
to revive the mill.
Faced with widely fluctuating raw
river water, Kruger Wayagamack
required a water treatment system that
could handle fluctuations better than
an existing decanter, installed in 1963.
The new 4,000 (US) gallon-per-minute
system, started up in October, includes
an ACTIFLO® clarifier and three
DUSENFLO® gravity filters. The system
will treat incoming water with 1-
18 nephelometric turbidity units
(NTU), 40-60 apparent colour units
(ACU) and a temperature of 1-22°C, to
produce high-purity water with less
than 0.3 NTU and less than 10 ACU.
The new system and filters take up
half the space of the decanter.
Ontario to hire 33 more water inspectors
Acting on the government’s promise to
implement the recommendations of
the Walkerton Inquiry, the Ontario
Ministry of the Environment is hiring
33 new full-time water inspectors,
investigators and other compliance
staff. With these new inspectors and
compliance staff, the Ministry of the
Environment says it will be able to
more effectively enforce environmental
laws and:
- Respond to an additional 5,000
reported incidents of adverse water
quality, where a water-quality standard
has not been met, each year;
- Respond to up to 25,000 resolution
reports from waterworks owners each
year to ensure incidents have been
resolved, a new ministry responsibility
under the Safe Drinking Water Act;
- Conduct more announced and unannounced
inspections of the labs that
test water samples, and;
- Improve the ability to inspect municipal
water distribution systems.
Atlantic Canada’s first low-pressure membrane system
The city of St. John’s, Newfoundland,
has chosen USFilter to provide an 18.5
million gallon per day (70 MLD)
Memcor® continuous microfiltration,
submerged (CMF-S) system. This
will be Atlantic Canada’s first lowpressure
membrane system.
St. John’s Windsor Lake Wastewater
Treatment Plant used chlorination
as the sole means of water treatment,
and, therefore, could not meet
future regulatory requirements for
treatment. A pilot study demonstrated
that CMF-S reliably produced very
high quality water when direct filtering
the Windsor Lake water source.
The overall system will include
both primary and backwash recovery
CMF-S units as the main treatment
units, along with corrosion protection
and final disinfection. The backwash
recovery units will increase the overall
plant recovery to 99.4%, reducing the
wastewater volume to less than 0.5
MLD.
Study on low-pressure membrane fouling
The American Water Works Research
Foundation and the US EPA recently
granted $350,000 (US) in funding for a
two-year study on natural organic matter
(NOM) fouling of low-pressure
membrane systems that use microfiltration
and ultrafiltration. Members of
USFilter’s North American Technology
Center (NATC), CH2M HILL, the
Johns Hopkins University, the
University of Colorado and the
University of Poitiers in Poitiers,
France, will conduct the study.
“This research study will greatly
improve our understanding of membrane
fouling, which will result in
defining better site-specific fouling
control strategies through appropriate
membrane selection, as well as effective
pretreatment and cleaning,” says
Jerome Leparc, research engineer with
the NATC’s drinking water division.
Participating utilities include the
Tampa Bay Regional Surface Water
Treatment Plant and the Indianapolis
Water Treatment Plant. The plants will
host pilot studies, offering a range of
water qualities for testing the fouling
effect on microfiltration and ultrafiltration
membranes.
During the study, the research team
will investigate conditions contributing
to NOM fouling of these low-pressure
membrane systems. Researchers
will also examine and quantify the
impacts of NOM fouling on the microfiltration
and ultrafiltration systems,
using various pretreatment conditions
and water qualities.
Fouling occurs in all pressure-driven
membrane processes and can often
limit implementing a full-scale membrane
system. Although many types of
materials accumulate on membranes
during drinking water treatment
processes, NOM fouling can cause
irreversible accumulation, leading to
long-term flux decline. To date, little
research has been done on natural
organic matter and membrane interactions
in low-pressure systems because
researchers used to think water-soluble
molecules passed through microfiltration
and ultrafiltration membranes.
Alberta announces new water supply strategy
The Alberta government claims its
Water for Life: Alberta’s Strategy for
Sustainability is the most comprehensive
strategy of its kind in Canada.
Water for Life is based on over 18
months of consultations and discussions
with Albertans and water
experts. The plan outlines a series of
short-, medium- and long-term actions
- worth an estimated $916 million -
over the next 10 years, aimed at ensuring
Albertans have safe, secure drinking
water, healthy aquatic ecosystems,
and a reliable water supply to support
provincial economic development.
As part of a plan to conserve water,
the government recently announced it
is establishing a Provincial Advisory
Council on Water, along with a series
of local watershed management and
stewardship groups. The province is
already taking action in a number of
areas, including a complete review and
assessment of all drinking water treatment
facilities in the province to serve
as a basis for future decisions on drinking
water standards and infrastructure,
and working with multi-stakeholder
groups to develop recommendations
on policy and practice for uses of water
that remove it from the “active” water
cycle (i.e. deep well injection practices).
The Water for Life strategy, and
background information on some of
the core areas of actions are available
on-line at www.waterforlife.gov.ab.ca.
Wastewater project making life better in Grand Etang, Nova Scotia
Residents of Grand Etang and St.
Joseph du Moine are starting to see
results from the creation of a wastewater
management district (WMD) for
the area, using a community-based
approach to managing sewage and septic
systems. It involves the community
in establishing standards and ensuring
adequate maintenance of septic systems.
A WMD may also be eligible for
infrastructure cost-sharing arrangements.
In the first phase of the pilot project,
two Nova Scotia Youth Conservation
Corps members and an engineering
student surveyed the location
and condition of all on-site septic disposal
systems in the communities.
Residents were offered a discounted
price to have their systems pumped;
124 homeowners took advantage of the
incentive.
The pilot project also evaluated the
use of new technology for disposing of
materials pumped from domestic septic
systems. About 318,000 litres
(70,000 gallons) of material were
processed through a de-watering system.
The remainder went to a local
sewage treatment plant where it is
being turned into compost. Previously,
the material was trucked for two hours
to a disposal lagoon.
Energy conservation can replace up to 50% of Ontario’s coal plants
According to a new report from
Enersource Corporation (formerly
Hydro Mississauga), energy conservation
can reduce Ontario’s electricity
needs by up to 2,900 megawatts (MW)
by 2010 and by up to 3,800 MW by
2015. Energy conservation can, therefore,
replace up to 50% of Ontario’s
coal-fired electricity generation.
According to Enersource, Ontario’s
municipal electric utilities (e.g.,
Hamilton Hydro, London Hydro) are “in the best position to promote energy
conservation initiatives across their
service areas.”
On November 25, Ontario’s Energy
Minister, Dwight Duncan, announced
that he will permit Ontario’s electric
utilities to raise their rates on average
by 0.3 cents per kwh to finance energy
conservation programs.
Contact: www.cleanairalliance.org
and click on “Seven Steps To An
Energy Efficient Ontario”.
Miramichi opens wastewater treatment facility
Miramichi, New Brunswick, recently
officially opened its Southside wastewater
treatment facility. The new facility
enables the City to dramatically
improve its environment by closing out
two old inadequate treatment facilities
and to protect groundwater supplies in
areas which never had a collection system.
Work involved the construction of
an aerated lagoon, several lift stations,
installation of piping, and the decommissioning
of existing outdated and
overloaded treatment facilities.
Ontario municipality fined for failing to report water samples
The Corporation of the Township of
Centre Wellington has been fined a
total of $11,000, plus a 25-percent victim
fine surcharge, after pleading
guilty to three counts relating to the
operation of waterworks in Fergus and
Elora.
The Court heard that the Corporation
did not immediately report
adverse water quality results for a sample
taken from the Elora water distribution
system and for a second sample
taken from the Fergus water distribution
system. Both samples were collected
in August 2002 and were found
to have low chlorine residuals, an indication
of adverse water quality. Under
Section 8 of Regulation 459/00 the
owner of a water treatment or distribution
system is required to ensure that
immediate notice is given if there is an
indicator of adverse water quality; the
notice must be confirmed in writing
within 24 hours.
The Court also heard that, on
September 21, 2002, the Corporation
of the Township of Centre Wellington
pumped more water than was permitted
by the Township’s permit to take
water. It has subsequently implemented
measures to prevent a recurrence of
both types of offences.
Program hooks up truckers to power units
Idling tractor trailers are a major factor
in North American air pollution.
Sometimes hundreds of trucks idle for
hours while drivers take mandatory
rest periods. Now, a pilot program to
offer electrical hookups to idling 18-
wheelers in an effort to decrease air
pollution may begin in Alabama this
spring. It may prove to be a significant
step in the mitigation of air pollution.
$78.7 million to protect British Columbia bog
The BC and federal governments, the
Greater Vancouver Regional District,
and the Corporation of Delta have submitted
an offer of $78.7 million to
acquire 5,426 acres within Burns Bog.
The offer involves the original 5,004
acres deemed necessary to protect the
bog as outlined in a 2000 Environmental
Assessment Office ecosystem
review. The offer includes an additional
422 acres that will further enhance
the protection of the bog. Burns Bog, a
self-sustaining ecosystem with a diversity
of wildlife and plants, is the largest
raised peat bog on the west coast of
North America. It makes a significant
contribution to improving air quality in
the Lower Mainland.
New electricity emissions standards for Alberta
Following an extensive two-year consensus-
based review process, the
Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA)
is bringing forward a proposed new
framework for managing air emissions
from electricity generation in Alberta.
The report contains 71 specific recommendations
for an emissions framework.
If adopted by the province, the
framework would result in substantial
reductions in emissions of four key air
pollutants from electricity generation;
sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate
matter and mercury. An agreement
on greenhouse gases is still under
discussion. The full report, recommendations
and background information
on the current and proposed standards
are available at www.casahome.org
CASA is a non-profit, consensusbased
association that advises the
province and manages air quality
issues in Alberta. It is comprised of
stakeholders from three key sectors -
government, industry, and non-governmental
organizations such as health
and environmental groups.
See our home page on how to order your subscription. We regret we can
only accept orders from Canada and the United States.