Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - May 2004
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Environmental News - May 2004
Midland fined for
non-compliance of Ontario
Water Resources Act
The Town of Midland, Ontario, has
been fined $7,000 - exclusive of a victim
fine surcharge - after pleading
guilty to two counts of non-compliance
with a regulation made under the
Ontario Water Resources Act
(OWRA).
The Town has approximately
36,000 permanent residents located on
the southern shore of Georgian Bay. It
is authorized, through a certificate of
approval issued by the Ministry of the
Environment (MOE), to operate a
communal water system that consists
of 14 water wells and five pumping
stations.
The court heard that in November
2002, an inspection of the drinking
water system by MOE staff found that
on numerous occasions the Town had
not collected and analysed water samples
as required under environmental
laws.
Failing to perform the required collection
and analysis of drinking water
samples in accordance with Schedule
2 of Ontario Regulation 459 is a violation
of Section 107(1) of the OWRA.
The Town of Midland pleaded guilty to
failing to sample and analyse weekly
for microbiological parameters at Well
#9 on three occasions, between
December 16, 2001 and June 29, 2002,
and on two occasions at its Sunnyside
Pump Station, between January 13,
2002 and January 26, 2003, and was
fined $3,500 for each of these two
offences, for a total of $7,000.
Water plant comes on-line
for oil sands SAGD
operation
USFilter is the first equipment supplier
to provide an entire water treatment
plant (WTP) for a steam-assisted gravity
drainage (SAGD) operation in the
oil sands of Alberta, Canada.
Suncor Energy Inc.’s WTP at the
Firebag Stage One SAGD site, northeast
of Fort McMurray, Alberta,
recently came on-line – almost three
years after initial construction began.
The US $4.5 million WTP system consists
of induced gas flotation, walnut
shell filtration, warm lime softening
and accompanying rake drive, post
softening filtration, and primary and
polishing weak acid cations.
USFilter’s system helps Suncor separate
the oil and water during the bitumen
extraction process. Using SAGD
technology, Suncor injects steam into
the uppermost of two horizontally
stacked pipes to heat the oil zone and
lower the viscosity of the heavy crude
oil, or “bitumen.” Gravity then causes
the heated bitumen to flow into the
lower pipe, where it is extracted.
Bitumen is separated from water and,
using USFilter’s system, the latter is
retreated and then recycled back into
the steam generator.
Once fully operational in 2005,
Firebag Stage One is projected to produce
35,000 bbl of bitumen per day
and have the ability to recycle large
quantities of water.
Contact: www.usfilter.com.
Wind energy industry
disappointed with
federal budget
The Canadian Wind Energy
Association is disappointed with the
new federal budget’s failure to expand
support to Canada’s wind energy
industry. Not increasing the Wind
Power Production Incentive (WPPI)
program represents a lost opportunity
for Canada. It sends a negative signal
at a time when provincial governments
are pursuing initiatives to facilitate
wind energy development and wind
turbine manufacturers are looking for
investment opportunities in North
America.
“Provincial governments are now
thinking in much bigger terms than the
federal government, and will be making
decisions in the next 12 months on
whether or not to proceed with new
initiatives,” said Robert Hornung,
President of the Canadian Wind
Energy Association. “It is critical that
the federal government commit this
spring to partner with provincial governments
by allocating a portion of the
$1.5 billion in available climate
change funds or funds from the sale of
Petro-Canada to support wind energy.”
CanWEA has been urging the federal
government to expand the WPPI
program target to 4,000 MW because
of the strong interest expressed by the
wind energy industry and the complementary
initiatives being pursued at
the provincial level. In addition, a
4,000 MW target would produce a
market large enough to support domestic
manufacturing of wind turbines and
components, allowing further economic
benefits of wind energy development
in Canada.
2004 brings good news for biosolids recycling
The Water Environment
Federation (WEF) supports
biosolids recycling, the practice
of treating, processing, and
recycling organic wastewater byproduct
into fertilizer and other usable
products, and applauds the recent
actions of the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in support of
the practice.
The US National Biosolids
Partnership (NBP) is expecting success
this year with its pilot-tested environmental
management system (EMS)
for the biosolids program. EMS verification
signifies that an agency supports
excellence in biosolids management,
exceeds regulatory compliance
obligations, and provides meaningful
opportunities for public participation.
To date, two agencies have achieved
independent, third-party verification
and a total of seventeen new agencies
are expected to undergo audits in 2004.
Recently, several court decisions
over local regulation of land-applied
biosolids have been in favour of the
practice. In November 2003, a Federal
Court ruled to reject anti-biosolids
ordinances in Appomattox County,
Virginia, capping a string of legal victories
for Virginia farmers seeking to
end the County's illegal ban on
biosolids.
On 10-7-03 a petition from the
Center for Food Safety called for EPA
to place an emergency moratorium on
the land-application of biosolids.
WEF was part of a Municipal Coalition
that submitted a response letter
to EPA on 10-23-03 urging the Agency
to deny the Center's petition. On 12-
22-03, the EPA responded to the
Center with a 22-page document outlining
its findings - that the assertions
made by the Center for Food Safety
concerning the hazards of land-applied
biosolids were not substantiated.
In related actions, on 12-31-03 EPA
published in the Federal Register its
final action plan responding to the
National Research Council's recommendations
from its July 2002 report
on the land application of biosolids.
The plan included 14 specific projects
to enhance the Agency's ongoing
research and outreach activities and
presents the results of its review of
existing biosolids regulations to identify
additional pollutants for potential
future regulations. The Agency also
issued a proposed rule on 12-10-03 to
revise the current compost designation
to include compost made from
biosolids and announced on 10-17-03
its final decision not to regulate dioxins
in land-applied biosolids. After five
years of study, including outside peer
review, EPA determined that dioxins
from this source do not pose a significant
risk to human health or the environment.
St. Clair River spill spurs
Ontario to get tough on
industrial polluters
Ontario Environment Minister Leona
Dombrowsky has vowed to get tough
with polluters after a recent chemical
spill into the St. Clair River.
“Tap water in communities along
the St. Clair River remained safe to
drink because effective warning systems
prevented contamination from
entering municipal water supplies,”
she said. “But, the real issue here is
preventing spills from happening in
the first place. It is unacceptable for
the safety of a community’s water supply
to be under the threat of contamination,”
Ms. Dombrowsky said.
The spill - containing methyl ethyl
ketone and methyl isobutyl ketone -
occurred on February 1 at the Imperial
Oil refinery in Sarnia. Ministry officials
continue their investigation into
what occurred at Imperial Oil. In addition,
the province’s Environmental
SWAT team was deployed to Sarnia to
begin an inspection sweep of industries
in the area.
Membrane bioreactor
treats wastewater on
world’s largest cruise ship
The French company, Orelis, a Rhodia
subsidiary and specialist in membrane
filtration technologies, has installed a
very compact treatment plant onboard
the Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest
cruise ship, which set sail on its maiden
voyage on January 12, 2004.
This plant will treat 39,000 ft3/day
of wastewater and discharge perfectly
clean water back into the sea all thanks
to Orelis’ PLEIADE® external loop
membrane bioreactor technology. The
system can be compared in size to the
wastewater treatment plant for a town
of 8,000 inhabitants. This technology
enables the ship to operate in waters
protected by extremely stringent
wastewater discharge regulations.
As a proven technology applied to
industrial effluent treatment, the
PLEIADE ultra-filtration process has
been used successfully for over 25
years in Japan for recycling building
wastewater.
This modular, ultra-compact system
is particularly suitable for tight space
constraints such as ships’ lower decks
and bilges.
It is also simple and easy to use.
The "external" loop-mounted membranes
can be inspected visually. Both
installation and maintenance activities
are facilitated by easy access, similar
to that of a simple pump or a marine
motor. In addition, full automation of
treatment and membrane cleaning provides
ongoing and uninterrupted operation
throughout the entire voyage,
including stopovers.
This technology is also available for
warships, inhabited oil platforms, or
any other type of floating vessel operating
in protected waters and requiring
high quality wastewater treatment
prior to offshore discharge. It can be
adapted to retrofit older vessels.
Contact: www.orelis.com.
City of Calgary awards
contract to upgrade water
treatment facilities
The City of Calgary Waterworks has
selected John Meunier Inc. to provide
equipment to upgrade its two water
treatment facilities in a contract valued
at $17 million.
The City of Calgary is upgrading
the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant
and the Glenmore Water Treatment
Plant. John Meunier Inc. will supply
six Actiflo® clarifiers for each facility
which will raise the capacity to 550
MLD each.
The new Actiflo clarifiers will be
installed for the pretreatment phase of
each plant.
The Bearspaw plant draws water
from the Bow River, and the Glenmore
plant draws water from the Elbow
river. Because of the high turbidity of
river water during times of spring
runoff, the City was sometimes forced
to reduce capacity at the Bearspaw and
Glenmore plants to preserve drinking
water quality. The rivers have recorded
turbidities of more then 1000 NTU
(nephelometric turbidity units) during
spring runoff, which caused temporary
overload for the existing pretreatment
sedimentation basins and filters. The
water treatment plants will now be able
to produce drinking water of high
quality, meeting and exceeding the
regulations for Drinking Water
Quality.
The upgrade will be carried out in
two phases. Work is scheduled to begin
at Bearspaw in May 2004, and at
Glenmore in 2005.
Petro-Canada fined for
waste oil discharge
Petro-Canada has been fined $37,000,
plus a 25-percent victim fine surcharge,
after being found guilty of two
offences under the Ontario Water
Resources Act (OWRA).
In 1997, the Ministry of the
Environment issued to Petro-Canada a
certificate of approval for a sewage
works at its bulk fuel depot in
Peterborough. The Court heard that the
installed sewage works contained an
oil interceptor that was significantly
smaller than the one approved by the
Ministry of the Environment. The
Court also heard that in August 2000,
waste oil discharged from the oil interceptor
into a nearby ditch which flows
to Byersville Creek and to Otonabee
River and that the discharge was
caused by the installation of the
improperly sized interceptor.
Tests show wet sand and
wave action are source of
E. coli at some beaches
Research conducted by Manitoba
Water Stewardship shows wave action
is responsible for occasionally dispersing
E. coli living in wet sand to bathing
water, resulting in periodic high E. coli
readings along popular Lake Winnipeg
beaches this past summer.
An important component of their
plan will be the development of a clean
beaches program that will be designed
to educate the public on activities that
contribute to instances of E. coli on
beaches such as littering, other activities
that attract birds such as gulls, and
the practice of grooming beaches. The
program will also reinforce how taking
appropriate precautions when visiting
beaches can reduce the possibility of
becoming sick.
DNA "fingerprinting" commissioned
by the department has revealed
that the majority of the bacteria along
the beaches is from animals, with gulls
as the single largest identifiable contributor.
The E. coli then makes its way
into beach water from the sand by the
up-rush and backwash of water into
the beach area.
The significant new finding has
also recently been established at several
Lake Michigan beaches and is contrary
to the long-held but unproven
assumption that the occasional high E. coli counts at Lake Winnipeg beaches
must be due to large local or regional
sources.
Research in Manitoba and the State
of Michigan shows that E. coli survives
and possibly reproduces in layers
of wet sand just below beach surfaces.
Wave action drives water up onto the
beaches and releases E. coli back into
the water.
When people go to the beach they
often enjoy a picnic lunch, snacks or
other food. The improper disposal of
this food waste attracts gulls and other
birds that in turn contribute to the high
levels of E. coli in sand.
Lake Winnipeg generally has no
significant E. coli concentrations. The
warnings issued this past summer were
the first in 10 years and were localized
concentrations.
Major Lake Winnipeg beaches have
been routinely monitored for bacteria
since the early 1980s. If Manitoba’s
recreational water quality objective
level of 200 E. coli per 100 ml of water
is exceeded in repeated measurements,
beaches are posted by order of a medical
officer of health.
Decline of species
warning by scientists
The diversity of butterflies, birds and
plants is in decline in the UK, say scientists
whose research supports the
argument that mass extinction threatens
life on Earth.
Science Editor of The Guardian,
Tim Radford, writes that a study in the
US journal Science reports that about
70% of all butterfly species in Britain
have shown signs of decline. About
28% of plant species and 54% of bird
species also declined in areas studied
over long periods. The finding comes
from government-funded scientists
using data painstakingly amassed over
the past 40 years by 20,000 skilled naturalists.
A botanist at the Natural History
Museum, Sandra Knapp, says that
Britain, by virtue of its well-known
and well-studied biodiversity, is the
“canary in the coal mine for the rest of
the globe”.
Jeremy Thomas of the Natural
Environment Research Council, who
led the study of butterfly populations,
warns that, “this adds enormous
strength to the hypothesis that the
world is approaching its sixth major
extinction event. The others appear to
have been cosmic events, either from
outer space coming in or some major
perturbation - volcanoes, whatever -
within the Earth. So they are believed
to be physical events.
“You could say this latest one is an
organic event: that one form of life has
become so dominant on Earth that
through its over-exploitation and its
wastes, it eats, destroys, or poisons the
others”.
Fossil records show a pattern of
continuous evolution and extinction
over a 600 million year period but naturalists
now think that extinction rates
are at least 100 times greater than the
natural “background” rate, because of
pollution, habitat destruction, hunting,
agriculture, global warming and population
growth.
Second North Battleford drinking water suit settled
The Saskatchewan government and the
City of North Battleford have reached
an out-of-court settlement with
approximately 100 claimants who
were seeking compensation as a result
of the North Battleford water contamination
incident. The total value of the
compensation package is approximately
$425,000, which includes compensation
for pain and suffering, lost
income, out-of-pocket expenses and
legal fees. Compensation payments to
individuals will be based on the extent
of damages suffered. The Province and
the City of North Battleford will share
equally in the settlement.
In August 2003, the Province and
the City settled with about 700 other
people, who also became ill due to the
North Battleford drinking water contamination
incident.
Two ecologists receive 2004 Stockholm Water Prize
The 2004 Stockholm Water Prize has been awarded to
Professors Sven Erik Jørgensen, Denmark, and William J.
Mitsch, USA.
The Nominating Committee wrote: Professors Sven Erik
Jørgensen and William J. Mitsch are awarded the Stockholm
Water Prize 2004 for their pioneering development and
global dissemination of ecological models of lakes and wetlands,
widely applied as effective tools in sustainable water
resource management.
Professor Jørgensen, 69, is a professor of environmental
chemistry at the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences in
Copenhagen. Professor Mitsch, 56, is a professor of natural resources and
environmental science and director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research
Park at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Their theoretical
and applied work on lake and wetland ecosystems,
management of lake and wetland water quality, and lake,
river and wetland conservation, restoration and usage has
been acknowledged and implemented in both developing
and developed countries.
His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden will present
the Prize in Stockholm on Thursday, August 19, 2004.
The Laureates will share the US $150,000 Prize sum.
Contact: www.siwi.org.
Saskatchewan and steel company renew
environmental agreement
Saskatchewan Environment Minister,
David Forbes, and steel manufacturer
IPSCO Saskatchewan President, Peter
MacPhail, have renewed an environmental
agreement designed to foster
co-operation between the province and
IPSCO on a broad range of environmental
issues, including regulatory
compliance, environmental management
and protection, and pollution pre-
vention. A key element of the partnership
is a joint working committee that
meets regularly and encourages free
and open discussion on topics related
to environmental management. It provides
a forum where mutual environmental
issues can be addressed in a
timely and responsible manner.
A five-year agreement, which was
first signed in 1998, expired last year.
Nova Scotia towns receive
infrastructure funding
The Nova Scotia towns of Quispamsis
and Hampton will receive Canada-
New Brunswick Infrastructure Program
investments totaling more than
$7.3 million.
The $6.2 million Quispamsis project
involves decommissioning of the
Matthews Cove Wastewater Treatment
Facility, construction of two sewage
lift stations, 1,600 m. (5,250 ft.) of
forcemain and 2,680 m. (8,793 ft.) of
gravity sewer lines, and the expansion
of the Longwood Wastewater Treatment
Facility.
In Hampton, the $1.1 million project
involves the extension of the
municipal sewer system to Fairmont
Subdivision and involves the installation
of a gravity sewer, a wastewater
pumping station and a forcemain.
Also, work will include the decommissioning
of the existing trickle filter
wastewater system in Fairmont
Subdivision.
Petrochemical companies
ordered to improve environmental
performance
The Ontario Ministry of the
Environment has ordered Nova
Chemicals (Canada) Limited, SCU
Nitrogen Inc. and Cabot Canada Ltd.
to take a variety of actions to comply
with Ontario's environmental laws.
The ministry's actions result from an
inspection sweep of the Sarnia area by
the Environmental SWAT Team.
The three petrochemical companies
received Provincial Officer Orders following
recent inspections. The orders
detail what action they must take in
order to come into compliance, for
example, creating spill contingency
plans, amending or obtaining certificates
of approval for air emissions and
registering wastes generated. All three
companies have been referred to the
ministry’s Investigations and Enforcement
Branch for investigation to determine
if charges are warranted.
Erratum
Water Treatment plants are vital to
Baghdad's restoration, Page 44,
ES&E, March 2004 - The total cost
of the scheme was $1.4 billion (US),
not $1.4 million (US) as shown in
the article.
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