Progressive wastewater technologies provide renewable energy source
USFilter and Paques bv of the
Netherlands have signed an exclusive
license agreement encompassing three
of Paques' biological wastewater treatment
technologies. USFilter will
design and supply Paques' Biopaq® IC
and UASB anaerobic technologies and
Circox® aerobic reactors for all industrial
applications in the United States
and Canada. The agreement also
includes the Thiopaq® gas cleaning
technology for specific applications.
Paques anaerobic technology is
used worldwide to treat high strength
biodegradable wastewater, producing
energy-rich biogas as a byproduct,
which can be used for steam or power
generation. Aerobic technologies complement
the anaerobic treatment
process, enabling treated water to be
discharged directly into the environment.
Not only does this technology
drastically reduce residuals, but it is
also very compact, providing even
urban industrial facilities with a high
rate treatment process that can significantly
reduce sewer fees.
Moncton pleads guilty in landfill case
The municipality of the City of
Moncton has pleaded guilty to federal
environmental charges related to a
decommissioned landfill. This is the
first time that a municipality has been
prosecuted by Environment Canada
for landfill problems.
A provincial court judge ordered
the City to pay a fine of $10,000, to
contribute $20,000 to the Jonathan
Creek Restoration Committee, and to
contribute $5,000 to the federal government’s
Environmental Damages
Fund. As well, the judge ordered the
municipality to arrange and pay for all
work needed to ensure that the landfill
meets requirements of the federal
Fisheries Act. It is estimated that remediation
costs could be as high as
$700,000. The City must monitor the
landfill and report regularly to
Environment Canada on test results. If
there are any continuing or new problems,
the municipality must then
immediately address them.
Abridged
New federal regulations for the use and release of TCE and PERC
The Government of Canada recently
announced new regulations under the
Canadian Environmental Protection
Act (CEPA) that will bring about a
65% reduction in the use of
trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene
(PERC) in substances
used in solvent degreasing operations.
Solvent degreasing involves the use
of solvents to clean soils from surfaces
prior to manufacturing processes such
as painting, plating, repair or product
assembly. Solvent degreasing is used
by many industries including automobile,
auto parts, aerospace, furniture,
appliance, primary metals and electronics.
The regulations will require solvent
degreasing operations that exceed a
certain threshold, to reduce the use of
TCE and PERC by 65% by 2007 and
through reduced use, ultimately reduce
the release of these substances into the
environment. Some facilities have
already introduced new control technologies
or switched to alternative solvents
or cleaning processes. In fact,
recent data indicates a significant
reduction in the use of TCE and PERC
in solvent degreasing operations from
1995 to 2000. These new regulations
will accelerate this trend. Most of the
PERC in Canada is used in dry cleaning
operations. Regulations requiring
dry-cleaners to reduce PERC use and
emissions by 70% by 2005 came into
effect in March 2003.
Ontario moves to improve water well construction and decommissioning standards
Ontario’s recently amended Wells
Regulation was designed to reduce the
risk of contamination for the approximately
three million Ontarians who
depend on wells for drinking water.
New rules include:
Mandatory training and continuing
education for those who construct
wells;
Tougher standards for well construction
and decommissioning;
Mandatory placement of well tags on
all new wells;
Clear requirements for constructing
and decommissioning test holes and
de-watering wells, and;
A requirement that all well drillers
provide an information kit on the Wells
Regulation to every new well owner.
Maytag to distribute Zenon Environmental ultrafiltration units
ZENON Environmental Inc. recently
announced an agreement with Maytag
Canada for distribution of its
Homespring™ ultrafiltration unit in
Canadian consumer residential retail
channels.
Homespring was launched under
the Maytag brand name in Maytag
Stores across Canada in early
September and all Maytag Appliance
Centres in October. Maytag will also
provide installation and maintenance
of the units through its service and
support organization.
WERF allocates $200,000 to top ranked biosolids research project
The Water Environment Research
Foundation has allocated $200,000 to
move forward on the top ranked
research project identified at the
Biosolids Research Summit which was
held in July in Alexandria, Virginia.
That project, Methodology for
Implementing a Rapid Incident
Response Mechanism, will aim to create
a scientifically defensible method
for responding to claims of adverse
health effects from biosolids land
application. This project will begin to
answer the National Research
Council's call for a national rapid incident response network.
The first step will be to work with
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention to gather a group of
diverse stakeholders to draft a scope of
work for an acceptable pilot project.
The pilot project, a necessary first
step, will determine how a full-scale
project should be conducted.
“Although a full-scale project
would require funding beyond what we
can currently afford, we are committed
to moving this high-priority project
forward as best we can,” said Glenn
Reinhardt, executive director of WERF.
WERF is meeting with U.S. EPA to
determine which of the 31 research
projects identified at the summit are
likely to be identified for funding by
EPA, and which projects WERF is
likely to fund in 2004 and beyond.
WERF expects to fund $1.5 million
per year in biosolids-related research
projects, as it has for the last several
years.
A report from the summit is available
on the WERF website (www.werf.org).
Disinfection technology receives drinking water certification
USFilter’s OSEC® BP on-site sodium
hypochlorite generating system, from
USFilter Wallace &Tiernan Products,
has received certification for use in
drinking water systems by NSF
International. The NSF Standard 61
certificate is a nationally recognized
standard for all materials, components
and equipment that contact drinking
water.
The OSEC BP continuously produces
sodium hypochlorite from salt,
water and electricity through the electrolysis
of prepared brine solution,
thus eliminating the dependence on
commercial chlorine suppliers.
Operation is completely automatic,
making the OSEC BP ideally suited
for unmanned locations. It is available
in standard unit capacities ranging
from 12 to 50 PPD of equivalent chlorine
per day.
Consulting engineers fund water quality research scholarship
Consulting Engineers of Ontario has
committed $250,000 through the creation
of a Water Quality Research
Scholarship to support university-led
research into the protection and treatment
of drinking water.
All Ontario universities are eligible
to apply for the scholarship funding
until Friday, November 21, 2003.
Successful universities will be notified
in January 2004 and will have until
April 2004 to identify an eligible graduate
student to receive the scholarship.
Scholarship recipients must commence
work on the research during the
next academic year. Each scholarship
is worth $20,000 per year for two consecutive
academic years. In addition,
recipients of the scholarship may
receive up to $2,000 in expenses for
presenting papers directly related to
the supported research.
Confidence and optimism at September ENTSORGA trade fair in Cologne
ES&E’s Penny Davey attended the Cologne show.
Optimism and confidence were the
characteristic features of the 10th
ENTSORGA, which ran for five days
at the Koelnmesse exhibition centre in
September. The overwhelming majority
of the more than 1,000 exhibitors
from 25 countries expressed satisfaction
with the discussions held and international
contacts made during the fair.
A large number of delegations from
the private sector and from public
organizations around the world gained
information on specific solutions for
planned investment projects in a wide
variety of fields, particularly those
concerning wastewater treatment,
water treatment and high-quality recycling
and materials reprocessing technologies.
The driving force behind innovative
environmental-protection measures
remains waste-disposal service providers
who will face major challenges
as they work to implement new national
and European guidelines, laws and
regulations. The focal points include:
the recycling of electric and electronic
scrap, scrap cars and sewage sludge,
and the production of compost and
substitute fuels.
Exhibitors in the water and wastewater
sectors also benefited from the
new trade-fair concept. New exhibitors
spoke of expectations being greatly
exceeded. Some of the work focused
on the future reconditioning of the
sewer network in Germany and the
upgrading of the sewage treatment system
to meet EU standards. But demand
was also particularly strong from eastern
European countries where substantial
improvements both in sewage systems
and in preparation of process water for such areas as the food industry
are needed.
The supporting program featured
panel discussions, general meetings
and exhibitor press conferences. The
final day of the fair was open to the
public and contributed to underscoring
the issue of environmental protection.
Approximately 50,000 visitors from
75 countries, including 8,000 from
abroad, attended the show.
Windsor student represents Canada at SJWP
HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presents
award to Ildiko Beres.
At the Canada Wide
Science Fair in
Calgary this May, the
entry of Ildiko Beres,
a Windsor high
school student, was
selected from four
water-related projects
by the Canadian
Stockholm Junior
Water Prize Committee.
Ildiko is a senior
from W.C. Kennedy
Collegiate Institute.
For her project, Ildiko
authored the research
paper, “Go Green:
Construction of a
Bioreporting System
for the Detection of
Heavy Metal Ion Contamination”. In August, Ildiko, a Windsor high school
student, traveled to Sweden to compete against almost 60 entries from 26
countries for the prestigious International Stockholm Junior Water Prize
(SJWP).
Claire Reid from South Africa won first place this year. Ms. Reid investigated
an effective technique for successfully planting seeds in water-scarce
areas to improve rural life. The international award includes a crystal water
drop sculpture and $5,000 US, presented by HRH Crown Princess Victoria of
Sweden, patron of the SJWP.
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