James W. Maclaren - a giant in Canada’s water and wastewater industry
James W. MacLaren, B.A.Sc.,
S.M., LLD (hon.) died on June
13, 2005 in Sarnia, Ontario, at the
age of 83. Jim had an outstanding
career as a consulting engineer, and his
contributions to the environment and
the related problems facing not only
Ontario but the world as a whole, are
second to none. His numerous services
to the engineering community through
AWWA, WEF, E.I.C., ACEC and others
highlighted his dedication to his
profession.
After World War II, Jim attended
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and obtained his masters degree in sanitary
engineering. In 1949 he joined
his father in starting a new engineering
firm, James F. MacLaren Associates.
The new firm prospered and, following
the formation of Metro Toronto in
1953, it was awarded the engineering
for a number of major water and
wastewater projects. These included
the Lawrence Reservoir and Pumping
Station and the Humber Sewage
Treatment Plant. He became a partner
with his father in 1957 and, when his
father died in 1962, became president
of the new company James F.
MacLaren Ltd.
Over the next few years the company
opened offices in London,
Winnipeg, Ottawa, Moncton, Windsor,
Waterloo and Dartmouth. Notable
projects in this period were the
Greenway Sewage Plant in London,
the North End Waste Water Treatment
Plant in Winnipeg, the Greens Creek
Sewage Plant in Ottawa, the Skyway
Water Pollution Control Centre in
Burlington, the Westerly Water
Filtration Plant in Toronto (now the
R.L. Clark Filtration Plant), the
Easterly Water Filtration Plant in
Toronto (now the F.J. Horgan Filtration
Plant) and expansions to the Hamilton
Water Filtration Plant.
The firm started working overseas,
undertaking projects in Libya, Nigeria,
Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt.
By 1978 the firm had a staff of over
500 professional engineers, technologists
and support staff.
In 1980 James F. MacLaren Ltd.
was sold to Lavalin and Jim became
Chairman of MacLaren Engineers,
Planners & Scientists Inc., the environmental
division of Lavalin.
Jim was an advisor to the
Walkerton Inquiry and also to the
Expert Panel which was appointed by
the current provincial government. In
recent years he was a member of the
Advisory Board of MacViro
Consultants Inc. This role was of special
interest to him because he was
reunited with myself and a number of
others, with whom he had worked at
James F. MacLaren Ltd.
Jim MacLaren was highly respected
for his integrity, as well as his engineering
expertise.
- Sid Gillespie, MacViro Consultants Inc
BC invests in
environmental monitoring
British Columbia is investing
$500,000.00 to enhance its air, surface
and groundwater monitoring capability.
Minister of Water, Land and Air
Protection, Bill Barisoff says the funds
will maintain, modernize and expand
equipment at some of the 37 air quality,
35 surface water and 160 groundwater
monitoring locations across the
province.
During the last four years, the BC
government has invested in 146 air
quality monitors and 184 water monitors
across the province. It also provided
funding and technical expertise to
help in development of community
and regional airshed plans. Nine such
airshed plans have been developed in
the last four years – more than were
completed in the previous 10 years.
Among this year’s projects are:
Up to $45,000.00 to replace air monitoring
equipment in Prince George.
Up to $38,000.00 to replace air monitoring
equipment in Golden.
Up to $28,000.00 to add additional air
monitoring equipment in Cranbrook.
Up to $12,000.00 to add additional
water monitoring equipment in
Kitchener.
Up to $4,000.00 to replace water
monitoring equipment in the Fraser
Valley.
The Minister also announced
$202,000.00 in grants to assist with
development of airshed plans and
other air-quality improvement programs
and studies. Most of this funding
will support seven communitybased
projects.
Among this year’s projects are:
$40,000.00 for continued collection
of data for the Golden airshed assessment
and plan.
$40,000.00 for a study of dust problems
in the Prince George airshed.
$14,850.00 for woodsmoke and
backyard-burning education programs
in Port Alberni.
$20,000.00 to support development
of Phase 3 of an airshed plan in the
Sea-to-Sky region.
$20,000.00 for Burn-it-Smart workshops.
$25,000.00 to BC Transit to support
Clean Air Day 2006.
Rigorous inspections
mean better drinking
water protection
The first progress report from
Ontario’s Chief Drinking Water
Inspector confirms that overall the
province has very good quality water
and shows that the number of orders
issued to systems has decreased in the
past two years.
The report shows that 99.7 per cent
of almost 1.5 million water quality
tests conducted in the last two years
met Ontario’s drinking water standards.
Information available at the end
of April 2005 shows that only five per
cent of the municipal systems had
received orders in 2004/05 for infractions
in the most serious categories,
down from 14 per cent of systems in
2003/04.
New Ontario drinking
water regulation means
safe water
A new regulation to ensure drinking
water safety at businesses and facilities
that serve the public is now in effect.
The new regulation, which applies
to systems serving non-residential and
seasonal residential uses, includes fundamental
requirements for testing,
reporting and corrective action to
ensure public health is protected. New
provisions in Ontario Regulation
252/05 are the first step in the government’s
proposed move to make public
health units responsible for ensuring
facilities such as churches, community
halls, bed and breakfasts and tourist
outfitters have safe drinking water.
These provisions will regulate systems
serving non-residential and seasonal
residential uses.
The government proposes to transfer
this responsibility to public health
units as early as the fall of 2006, and
will invest in hiring and training new
inspectors. A proposed regulatory riskbased
framework detailing the roles
and responsibilities of the public
health units will be released for public
consultation this fall. Those consultations
will also consider the advisory
council’s recommendation that system
operators pay an inspection fee, and a
financial strategy to determine the
level of those fees.
Manitoba government
supports water quality
research on Lake
Winnipeg
Manitoba Water Stewardship Minister
Steve Ashton has announced $150,000
for water quality research on Lake
Winnipeg in collaboration with partners
in the Lake Winnipeg Research
Consortium. The funds will support
multi-disciplinary studies on the lake
conducted off the ship Namao as well
as other work necessary to restore the
health of Lake Winnipeg, said to be the
world's 10th largest freshwater lake. A
share of the funds will be available for
the purchase of space on the Namao
for Manitoba Water Stewardship staff
this summer.
One of the recommendations in the
Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board's
recent interim report recognized that
"ongoing research and monitoring will
be required on Lake Winnipeg." The funding by the province will assist in
gathering essential information to better
understand Lake Winnipeg's complex
ecosystem and to monitor its
progress towards recovery.
Other significant initiatives include:
Continuing research on E. coli at
Lake Winnipeg beaches.
Efforts to halt the Devils Lake outlet
project until it can be independently
reviewed by the International Joint
Commission.
A joint effort with Canada to form a
federal/provincial Lake Winnipeg committee.
Development of an improved water
management and regulatory framework
through the Water Protection Act.
Robert A. Goodings
becomes new PEO
president
Robert A. Goodings
Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO),
the licensing body for professional
engineers in the province, installed
Robert A. Goodings, P.Eng., as President
during its 83rd Annual Meeting on
April 16, 2005, in London, Ontario. He
succeeds George R. Comrie, P.Eng.,
CMC.
Mr. Goodings was voted President-elect
by PEO’s membership in March
2004. During his 2005/2006 term, Mr.
Goodings will lead the organization
that licenses and regulates the practice
of over 66,000 professional engineers
and engineering interns, and chair its
governing Council.
He says his priorities include establishing
scopes of practice for engineering
services that have a direct impact
on public health and safety as set out in
the Professional Engineers Act.
Prior to his retirement in 1994, Mr.
Goodings served as president, CEO
and chairman of Gore & Storrie Ltd.
Consulting Engineers (now CH2M
HILL). Throughout his 45-year career,
he has been directly involved in infrastructure
planning in water and wastewater
systems across Canada and in
other parts of the world. He is still
active in water supply engineering,
serving on committees of the Ontario
Water Works Association and having
worked with the Canadian Executive
Service Organization in Bolivia.
Ontario to make polluters
pay more for spills
If passed Bill 133 would impose environmental
penalties of up to $20,000 a
day for individuals and $100,000 a day
for corporations. Unlike fines, which
are handed down by the courts,
Ministry of the Environment officials
would assess these penalties within a
few days of an unlawful spill. The new
system encourages companies to make
greater efforts to prevent spills and
provides additional incentives to clean
them up quickly.
When a penalty has been imposed,
polluters could still face prosecution.
The proposed legislation would also
hold corporate officers and directors
more accountable. A conviction could
result in sentences ranging from fines
against a company to up to five years
of jail time for its directors and officers.
The legislation would also create a
special community clean-up fund. The
Province and municipalities would use
the fund to clean up spills and repair
environmental damage.
Halifax orders
22 monsters
Contractor Black and McDonald has
placed an order for 22 JWC Storm
MonsterTM overflow screens from JWC
Environmental for a large sewage
treatment project that will serve the
cities surrounding Halifax Harbour,
including Dartmouth, Herring Cove
and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
During heavy rain storms or overflow
events, the screens, each weighing
over a ton and some as long as 35
feet, will play a key role in protecting
the harbour by screening out municipal
and industrial pollutants, discharging
them into the downstream sewage flow
and preventing them from escaping
into the environment.
Installation will begin this year as
part of a massive project, initiated by
the Halifax Regional Municipality in 1997. The project includes the construction
of three wastewater treatment
plants, a collection network through
three communities, twenty-two CSO
chambers and several pump stations.
State of Washington
orders world’s largest
membrane bioreactor
ZENON Environmental Inc. recently
announced that they have been selected
to supply King County in the State
of Washington with the largest membrane
bioreactor in the world.
The ZeeWeed MBR (membrane
bioreactor) will treat an average day
flow of approximately 144,000 cubic
metres of municipal sewage or 38 million
gallons per day (MGD) with peak
flows up to 204,000 cubic metres or 54
MGD, serving over 100,000 households.
In addition, the company received
an order for a second smaller plant,
which brings the total order value to
$30 million.
St-Laurent honours John
Meunier Inc.
St-Laurent’s Mayor, Alan DeSousa, (left) hands the award to John Meunier’s Gilles Filion.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, recently
named John Meunier Inc. “Business of the Year.” The company develops, designs,
manufactures and installs wastewater and drinking water technologies, equipment
and services for its municipal, industrial and institutional clients in Canada, the
U.S. and Mexico. With annual growth of 20% over the past five years, the company,
which reported sales of $40 million in 2004, stood out for its administrative
and personnel management, its job creation, its business development and its
social involvement.
Following two years of efforts, John Meunier Inc. has recently succeeded in
landing an $18-million contract in Calgary and other contracts totaling $1.2 million
in Mexico. Other highlights of 2004 included new orders worth $50 million;
the hiring of 12 new employees, for a total of 135; and an investment of $750,000
million in fixed assets.
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