Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - September 2002
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Largest Actiflo plant in
Canada used as dual
application
USFilter's John Meunier Products recently
secured a $3.4 million project
with the Regional Municipality of
Halton, Ontario, for treating raw water
and backwash wastewater at the
Burlington Water Purification Plant. It
was decided to increase the plant's capacity
to 236 ML/day, due to steady
population growth in Halton Region.
With a total hydraulic capacity of
450,000 m3/day, three 100 ML/day
Actiflo® ballasted floc clarifiers will be
installed upstream of new ozone contactors
and the existing gravity dual media
filters. In addition, two ACP-600 Actiflo
package plant clarifiers will treat plant
residuals. The installation is scheduled
for completion in March 2004.
The Burlington Water Purification
Plant is the first water purification plant
in Ontario to use a combination of two
Actiflo processes – one for clarification
of raw water, and the other for secondary
treatment of combined filter backwash
water and primary sludge. When
completed, the installation will also be
the largest Actiflo plant in Canada.
Contact: E-mail: zielinskin@usfilter.com
Government of Canada
invests $260-million
in wind energy
The Wind Power Production Incentive
(WPPI), a $260-million initiative to develop
wind energy, was launched in May
by the Government of Canada. This
program will help increase the amount
of wind energy available across the
country by 500 percent.
Through WPPI, the Government of
Canada will provide a financial incentive
for the installation of 1,000 megawatts
of new wind energy capacity over
the next five years. This is equivalent
to the amount of power needed by approximately
250,000 average Canadian
houses. When fully implemented, and
with continued momentum, WPPI will
cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions
by more than three megatonnes annually
by 2010.
Contact: www.nrcan.gc.ca/redi.
New training programs
mean safer wells, safer
water for Ontario
The Ontario government has partnered
with four organizations to train well contractors
and educate private well owners
on well construction, maintenance
and safety.
The funding includes: $750,000 for
Sir Sandford Fleming College to develop
leading-edge curriculum for well
contractors and technicians; and
$940,000 for Green Communities, in
partnership with the Ontario Ground
Water Association and the Association
of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario,
to lead an 18-month community-based
education program for private well owners.
These initiatives are consistent with
Commissioner Dennis O'Connor's recommendation
86 in Part Two: Report
of the Walkerton Inquiry, which suggests
that the province provide owners of private
systems with information on wells
and their protection.
Other steps include: provincial funding
to safeguard rural water quality
through the Healthy Futures for Ontario
Agriculture program, and information
on the care and maintenance of private
wells.
Also, the province is providing
$200,000 to the Centre for Research and
Technology (CRESTech) to develop innovative
approaches to improve and
extend the life of water wells, and to
evaluate the state of the province's
water well infrastructure and make recommendations
for improvement.
In early April, 2002, the government
proposed tougher standards for well construction
and mandatory training for
well contractors and technicians which
were posted to the Environmental Registry
for public comment.
Are concrete pipe plants
safe and healthy places?
|
| John Duffy
|
The American Concrete Pipe Association
recently completed its 2001 Summary
of Injury Statistics and Trends and
reports that the concrete pipe industry
continues as one of the safest working
environments among comparable heavy
industries. The report verifies that the
industry has continued to decrease its
incidence rates from 1996 through 2001.
Total incidence rate has decreased from
10.5 to 7.3, and the lost-time incidence
rate has decreased by approximately
one-half over that same period.
The Association measures the effectiveness
of the safety programs instituted
by the industry by analyzing the safety
performance of the industry over the last
several years, and by comparing the
safety records of the concrete pipe industry
against those of similar industries.
As growth in the concrete pipe industry
has occurred, so has the need for
increased safety. Common injuries in
industry include slips, trips, falls, dust
in the eyes, vehicular injuries, back injuries,
and injuries to the fingers, hands
and feet.
John J. Duffy, ACPA president, says
that the American and Canadian concrete
pipe industries have moved very
quickly over the past 20 years to embrace
new product design technology,
production processes, quality assurance
programs and healthy workplaces.
Contact: info@concrete-pipe.org
U of T hosted North
American Conference of
Environmental
Engineers
Some 200 environmental engineering
professors, graduate students and practitioners
from across North America
were at the University of Toronto August
10-14 for a conference organized
by the Engineering Faculty's Division
of Environmental Engineering, and professors
in Civil and Chemical Engineering.
Held only every three years, the
conference is a joint meeting of the Association
of Environmental Engineering
and Science Professors (AEESP) and the
American Academy of Environmental
Engineers (AAEE). The conference
theme was Integrated Environmental
Teaching, Research and Practice: Linking
Engineering and Science to Address
Complex Problems.
Professor Phil Byer, Chair of the Division
of Environmental Engineering,
was the Conference Chair. Each session
began with a keynote address by a
world-renowned expert: Prof. Richard
Luthy of Stanford, Lisa Alvarez-Cohen
of Berkeley, Jerald Schnoor of University
of Iowa, and Bryan Karney, University
of Toronto.
David Phillips, who is Senior Climatologist
with Environment Canada, gave
an entertaining dinner talk in which he
told a largely U.S.
audience about the
fascination that Canadians
have about
weather and the
need to be concerned
about
changes in extreme
weather events.
|
| Dr. Benedek
|
The next day,
Dr. Andrew Benedek, founder, Chairman
and CEO of ZENON Environmental
Inc., shared his valuable and successful
experiences of moving from research
to the business world.
Contact: byer@ecf.utoronto.ca.
Important facts about
chlorination
Some people ask: wouldn't it be more
simple to completely eliminate the risk
of cancer from chlorinated water by
eliminating the use of chlorine in drinking
water?
Eliminating the use of disinfection
methods in drinking water would lead
to serious epidemics of infectious diseases.
In the 19th century, major outbreaks
of waterborne diseases were
common in Canada, the United States
and other developing nations. Beginning
in the early years of the 20th century,
the advent of chlorinated drinking water
virtually eliminated typhoid fever,
cholera and other waterborne diseases,
representing one of the great achievements
of public health.
The dangers were typically demonstrated
in 1991 after a decision by Peruvian
officials abandoned drinking water
chlorination because of concerns
over the health effects of THMs. The
result was a cholera epidemic and the
death of more than 3,500 people.
This tragedy shows that complex
epidemiological events cannot be solved
by simplistic answers.
Excerpted from Health Canada's
factsheet on chlorination
Microfiltration plant to treat
Lake Erie water
After extensive evaluations on membrane
systems, the Municipality of
Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission
in Ontario awarded USFilter a $1.7
million contract to provide the first
microfiltration plant to treat water from
Lake Erie.
A Memcor® CMF (Continuous
Microfiltration) system will provide six
million gallons of water per day to over
10,000 residents. The new South
Chatham-Kent Water Treatment Plant
will service the area of south Chatham-
Kent including the communities of
Blenheim and Erie Beach.
In May 2000, Chatham-Kent developed
a master plan specifically to address
future water and wastewater servicing
issues in the region. Part of the
plan was to focus on two of the region’s
existing conventional water treatment
plants that draw water from Lake Erie.
In order to consolidate operations and
provide for future water requirements
the plants needed to be upgraded or replaced.
The CMF technology incorporates a
patented air/liquid backwash to remove
inorganic or organic contaminants
greater than 0.2 microns and prevents
them from entering the hollow fibre
membranes that form the CMF barrier.
The direct-flow (outside-in) filtration
through the PVDF oxidant resistant
membrane fibres provides an efficient
use of membrane area and assures the
removal of contaminants from the raw
water source.
Call for Abstracts
The Water Environment Association of
Ontario's 2003 Annual Technical Symposium
will be held at the Toronto
Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, March 30
- April 1, 2003.
WEAO is looking for papers on the
following topics: utility management,
including sewer use bylaws and enforcement,
alternative delivery, finance and
partnering; watershed management; information
management; collection systems
and stormwater management; preliminary
and primary treatment; biological
treatment; advanced treatment;
biosolids management; odour control;
new technologies and research; operations;
small community issues; septage
disposal.
The abstract submission deadline is
October 1, 2002.
Details: WEAO, Tel: (905) 947-
1300,
email: weao@weao.org
Large ZeeWeed orders
for Zenon
The Fraser Valley Regional District has
chosen ZENON Environmental to supply
its ZeeWeed® membrane technology
as an expansion to the existing conventional
drinking water plant. The $5 million
extension will supply drinking water
to the City of Abbotsford and the
Community of Mission, just outside of
Vancouver, British Columbia. Currently,
water from nearby Norrish Creek
is only receiving chlorine treatment.
The company has also been awarded
a contract for two ZeeWeed drinking
water plants in the communities of
Hamlet of Smith and Canyon Creek, Alberta,
valued in excess of $1 million.
One of the plants will be replacing an
existing conventional water treatment
facility, while the other is an upgrade to
the existing plant.
ZENON has also won a wastewater
equipment order from Traverse City and
five other neighbouring townships in
Michigan. Council approved the move
to membranes for a number of reasons.
One of them is the ease with which the
plant can be retrofitted to increase capacity
without incurring additional major
facility expansion. Treated sewage
will be discharged into nearby
Boardman Lake, which then flows
through to Lake Michigan.
This plant will be the largest municipal
membrane sewage treatment plant
in North America.
Contact: www.zenonenv.com
George Powell receives
Albert E. Berry Medal, 2002
Recognized for his 40+ years of outstanding
engineering service and dedication
to the profession, the public, clients
and peers, George Powell, CH2M
HILL Canada's Senior Vice President,
has been awarded the Albert E. Berry
Medal for engineering expertise in water
infrastructure design, and planning
and design services.
George has worked on some of the
largest and most innovative water and
wastewater treatment facilities in
Canada, including Toronto's main
wastewater plant, Ashbridges Bay, and
the City of Calgary's Glenmore Dam
Pumping Station.
He was also recognized for his work
on several international fast-track
projects, including the Puerto Rico Infrastructure
Financing Authority's System-
wide Study, and USAID West Bank
Water Resources program 2 and Bethlehem
2000 Project.
Established in 1987 by the Canadian
Society of Civil Engineers, the Albert
E. Berry Medal pays tribute to Dr. Albert
E. Berry (1894-1984), an outstanding
civil engineer and one of Canada's environmental
engineering pioneers.
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