Sustainable Wastewater Management

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Sustainable Wastewater Management

• A Case Study
• for the District of Sooke
• Sustainable Communities Forum
• March 6, 2008
• Presented by Tami Wetmore, EPCOR Water Services
  Inc.

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Sustainable Wastewater Management

• Wastewater is an untapped resource
• Water Reuse
• High quality water source
• Biosolids Reuse
• Soil amendments fuel source
• Energy Recovery
• Gas production from Biosolids used for power
  generation

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Wastewater Components
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Water Reuse

• Long history of treated wastewater reuse
• Urban reuse new to North America
• Match water quality to re-use application
• Regulated in BC through Ministry of Environment
  with consultation with Public Health Authorities
  Agriculture Depts
• Restricted Public Use
• Unrestricted Public Use

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Water Reuse Categories

• Unrestricted Public Use
• Treatment Required very high standard to allow
  unrestricted public contact
• Examples
• Landscape greenhouse irrigation
• Parks golf course irrigation
• Street washing
• Toilet flushing
• Fire fighting
• Aquaculture

• Restricted Public Use
• Treatment Required higher quality than most
  discharge standards, however resulting quality
  still requires restricted public contact
• Examples
• Silviculture, seed orchard, seedling production
• Drip irrigation for orchards or vineyards
• Nurseries
• Wetlands

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Regional District of Nanaimo

• French Creek Pollution Control Centre
• 16 ML/day (24,000 people)
• Secondary treatment
• App. 1 ML/d (10) of summer production used for
  golf course irrigation
• Biosolids used for land reclamation

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City of Vernon

• Water Reclamation Centre
• 13 ML/d (36,000 people)
• Tertiary treatment with disinfection
• All treated wastewater is stored used April
  October for irrigation
• Golf courses, seed orchard, forestry centre,
  nursery, grazing hay lands
• Biosolids composting

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City of Edmonton

• Goldbar Wastewater Treatment Plant
• 260 ML/d (650,000 people)
• Tertiary treatment with disinfection
• 5 ML/d treated with membrane filtration for reuse
  at industrial sites
• Anaerobic digestion power generation from
  methane gas
• Biosolids co-composted with solid waste

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District of Sooke WWTP

• 3 ML/d (10,000 people)
• Secondary Treatment with disinfection
• Water Reuse Potential
• Plant Process Water
• Irrigation Systems
• Biosolids Reuse Potential
• Forestry
• Land reclamation
• Composting

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Dockside Redevelopment - Victoria

• 11 acre redevelopment
• Environmental features include
• Potable water use reduction in buildings
• 100 wastewater treatment on-site
• On-site renewable energy, including production
  from wastewater
• No potable water use for irrigation
• Green roofs
• LEED buildings

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Dockside Redevelopment - Victoria
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Treat Re-use With Respect

• Responsible for protection of public health
  environment
• Design systems well
• Manage facilities responsibly
• Excellence in communications

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Public Perception is Key

• Reuse can be a huge success story or a terrible
  disaster
• DONT TAKE ANY SHORTCUTS!
• Design
• Operations
• Communications
• Projects will fail if public trust is lost

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Questions?
References Stantec Engineering Ltd.
www.stantec.com Regional District of Nanaimo
-www.rdn.bc.ca    City of Vernon -
www.vernon.ca Edmonton Waste Management Center
for Excellence http//ewmce.com BC Municipal
Sewage Regulation - www.env.gov.bc.ca