Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2002
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Indoor stoves killing
millions in third world
Air pollutants trapped inside homes
from stoves that burn coal, wood or cow
dung have been linked to the premature
deaths of 2.1 million women and children
each year, the World Health Organization
says. Officials meeting at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development
are seeking ways to break the cycle
of these domestic hazards.
Gold Bar to convert
Edmonton weed bed to
flourishing lake
A demonstration wastewater plant will
treat Edmonton's sewage and reuse water
to rejuvenate neighbouring parkland.
ZENON membrane technology will
treat wastewater from Edmonton's Gold
Bar Wastewater Treatment plant for reuse
in a dry weed-filled pond in Gold
Bar Park.
The Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment
plant, located on the outskirts of Edmonton
along the south shore of the North
Saskatchewan River, is adjacent to two
under-used city parks. Currently, the facility
treats nearly 100,000 megalitres
of wastewater annually. In September,
City council decided to upgrade and
modernize the existing plant using membrane
technology. They purchased
ZENON's MBR (membrane bioreactor)
system as the initial demonstration unit
with a view to evaluating a larger fullscale
system.
The treated water will also be used
as internal recycle water in the plant with
the City looking to expand usage to include
local irrigation.
One of the main objectives of the new
plant will be to revitalize the pond in
Gold Bar Park, which has turned into a
weed-bed over the years. The newly created
lake, to be filled with tap water this
fall, will be filled with membrane-filtered
water a year from now.
This is the first project of its kind in
Canada to date. Contact: www.zenon.com.
One of China's largest
mills chooses ADI-SBR
technology
Guangzhou Paper Ltd. in Guangzhou,
China, has signed a contract with ADI
Systems Inc. of Fredericton, New
Brunswick, for an ADI-SBR
(sequencing batch reactor) system. This
mill is one of the largest in China and
has CTMP, sulfite pulp, groundwood
pulp, de-inking and paper-making operations.
The design wastewater characteristics
and effluent limits were:
Guangzhou Paper Ltd. undertook a
careful review of competing systems
and ultimately chose the ADI-SBR for
this important project. When the project
is complete, it will be one of the largest
SBRs treating pulp and paper
wastewater in the world.
ADI Systems Inc. will supply process
design, detailed design of SBR internals,
operator training, start-up and
commissioning, and equipment including
15 ADI Model ASD decanters, a jet
aeration system, instrumentation, control
valves, and a large distributed control
system (DCS) for monitoring and
automatic control. The Changsa Design
Institute will undertake detailed design
for the system.
The high-strength portion of the mill
wastewater is pretreated in a previously
built high-rate activated sludge system.
The low-strength wastewater is
pretreated in two large dissolved air flotation
units. The SBR system has been
designed to treat the combined high- and
low-strength streams after pretreatment.
The ADI-SBR will be comprised of five
14 000 m3 reactors and centrifugal blowers
to supply air to the jet aeration system.
The complete system will be automatically
controlled by a DCS with a
personal computer operator interface.
The aeration system is controlled by online
dissolved oxygen monitors to help
minimize operating cost.
Construction should be completed in
the second quarter of 2003 with commissioning
and start-up immediately
thereafter. Contact: rcl@adi.ca
North Winnipeg STP
spills raw sewage into the
Red River
Provincial officials closely monitored
the North Winnipeg Water Pollution
Control Centre following the mechanical
failure that occurred in mid-September.
Due to a valve failure during the
removal of an inspection hatch in one
of the facility's six pump rooms, the centre
was shut down for three days. This
resulted in an estimated 230,000 cubic
metres of raw sewage being released
into the Red River per day until the facility's
equipment was repaired. This
release was about 1.5% of the river's
flow.
Daily results showed that the oxygen
levels in the river water remained adequate
to support healthy aquatic life.
River flows remained above average,
which together with cooler river water
temperatures helped to reduce the impact
on water quality. As a precautionary
measure, the province also monitored
water quality at beaches on the
southern portions of Lake Winnipeg.
Ontario bans Dombind for
dust suppression
Dombind, a by-product from Norampac
Inc.'s (formerly Domtar Packaging)
containerboard mill in Quinte West
(Trenton), can no longer be legally used
as a road dust suppressant in Ontario.
Dombind is a concentrated liquid
material that is a by-product of recycled
cardboard produced at Norampac Inc.'s
cardboard mill. Dombind was previously
spread by municipalities primarily
on gravel roads within 100 kilometres
of that facility and in the London
area.
The ministry ordered an end to
spreading Dombind on roads, as it believes
there is potential for long-term
build-up of dioxins in the environment.
Norampac brought a number of legal
challenges to the ministry's Order to
eliminate the use of Dombind as a dust
suppressant by the end of October 2002.
The ministry was successful in having
the Order upheld at various levels of
courts and any continued use of
Dombind as a dust suppressant after
October 31, 2002, will lead to strict enforcement
action by the ministry.
The ministry has also ordered
Norampac Inc. to develop and implement
an alternative treatment technology
to eliminate Dombind.
Crompton Company
fined for spill
The Crompton Company (formerly
known as Uniroyal Chemical Company)
was recently fined a total of $125,000
after pleading guilty to two counts under
the Environmental Protection Act
(EPA).
The firm was convicted of discharging
odours into the environment as a
result of a spill at the company's operations
in Elmira between February 10 and
13, 2000.
The company pleaded guilty to one
count under section 14 (1) of the EPA
for discharging a contaminant causing
an adverse effect. The company also
pleaded guilty to one count under section
92 (1)(b) of the EPA, which relates
to failure to forthwith notify the regional
municipality of the spill. Two additional
charges laid against the company relating
to this incident in 2000 were withdrawn.
BC introduces new
drinking water legislation
The British Columbia government has
introduced new legislation to implement
a comprehensive $16-million action
plan to strengthen drinking water
protection.The government will make
amendments to enhance the Drinking
Water Protection Act, and new regulations
are being developed to strengthen
groundwater protection.
The legislation will:
- Establish decision-making and accountability
for drinking water with the
Minister of Health Services and B.C.'s
provincial health officer. It enables the
minister to establish guidelines and directives,
and strengthens the provincial
health officer's role in monitoring and
reporting yearly on drinking water and
public health protection.
- Make public health the priority for
decisions related to drinking water.
- Establish new drinking water officers
across B.C., with authority to investigate
complaints, require testing and assessment,
perform inspections, co-ordinate
source protection, issue orders and
take other steps to ensure water safety.
- Provide for a source-to-tap assessment
of all drinking water systems in B.C.,
starting with those that may pose the
highest risk to users.
The new legislation will be proclaimed
later this winter, after consultations
with the Union of B.C. Municipalities
and other stakeholders.
Two NB towns to get
water and sewerage
system upgrades
The Greater Shediac Sewerage Commission
will receive funds under the
Canada - New Brunswick Infrastructure
Program to upgrade the Greater Shediac
sewerage system, which will improve
the water quality discharged into
Shediac Bay. The investment under this
program amounts to a total of
$1,218,989.
Work to be undertaken will consist
of upgrading and increasing the capacity
of a total of four lift stations and related
piping.
A joint federal, provincial and municipal
infrastructure investment of
$434,485 will improve water management
in the Village of Saint-André.
Work to be undertaken will include development
of an additional water supply,
construction of an underground
water infiltration chamber, installation
of a water main and the purchase of related
equipment.
The Canada-New Brunswick Infrastructure
Program provides up to twothirds
of the eligible costs of community
infrastructure projects. Communities
provide the remaining one-third of
project costs, making the program a
unique partnership between all three levels
of government with infrastructure
investments of more than $163 million
in New Brunswick over six years.
More information on the Canada -
New Brunswick Infrastructure Program
is available online at: www.tbssct.gc.ca/ino-bni; www.gnb.ca/elg-egl/0376/0001/index-e.html.
Nova Scotia government
announces its Drinking
Water Strategy
A comprehensive strategy to manage
and protect Nova Scotia's drinking water
was released in October by David
Morse, Minister of Environment and
Labour. It is the first water management
strategy ever developed for the province.
The strategy outlines a three-year action
plan to conserve and protect Nova
Scotia's drinking water through a threestep
process -- source protection, water
treatment system operation, and monitoring
and testing. Some of the new initiatives
include the renewal of operating
approvals for all municipal water
systems. A new due diligence handbook
will be produced for municipal councillors
and other water utility owners and
the development of new educational
materials for private well owners.
Through federal and provincial cooperation,
more than $94 million has
been provided to municipalities since the
Fall of 2000 for infrastructure improvements
to more than 61 water- treatment
and wastewater-treatment facilities.
Both the Town and the Municipality
of Antigonish were recipients of infrastructure
program funding. The municipality
received $975,000 toward the
construction of a wastewater collection
and treatment system in Pomquet, and
the town received $4.5 million for a new
water-treatment facility in James River.
20th edition of Standard
Methods approved by EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA) has approved the 20th
Edition of Standard Methods for the Examination
of Water and Wastewater.
Serving as a comprehensive guide for
the testing of water and wastewater, this
latest edition was created through a joint
effort of the Water Environment Federation
(WEF), The American Water Works
Association (AWWA) and the American
Public Health Association (APHA).
Since 1905, Standard Methods for
the Examination of Water and
Wastewater has served as the industry
guide for water quality testing of a wide
variety of contaminants, including arsenic,
biochemical oxygen demand and
organic compounds. The Standard
Methods guide provides more than 350
separate methods of water quality measurements
used by water and wastewater
industry scientists, analysts and engineers
nationwide.
Standard Methods for the Examination
of Water and Wastewater can be
ordered on-line at www.awwa.org,
www.apha.org/media, or www.wef.org;
or via telephone at 1-800-926-7337
(AWWA), 1-301-893-1894 (APHA), or
1-800-666-0206 (WEF).
French SAUR group offers
sludge reduction process
for wastewater plants
The SAUR Group, of France, claims to
have developed an innovative and ecological
process that reduces by up to
30% the volume of sludge produced by
wastewater treatment plants. SAUR researchers
discovered that by isolating
certain micro-organisms, mycelium
strains (mould) partially present in
sludge, the volume was naturally reduced.
The reduced matter is totally
oxidized to form gaseous elements and
water, which generate no residue or secondary
pollution.
The different mycelium strains were
identified and isolated in advance, then
gathered to form a “cocktail” that is
combined with the sludge. To ensure
the production and supply of the “cocktail”,
SAUR signed an industrial partnership
with the French company
Biovitis.
The mycelium cocktail is developed
on site by means of a bioreactor that allows
the reproduction and bio-augmentation
of the species. The bioreactor,
which is permanently connected to the
tank, automatically supplies the aerobic
treatment tanks. Sludge can be integrated
into the usual recycling or removal
circuit without changing the ecosystem.
Thanks to the MycET process reducing
the volume of sludge, the usual treatment
costs are reduced. Today, the costs
of recycling and removal processes
range from US $35 to $100 per metric
ton. Contact, e-mail: vlorcin@saur.fr.
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