New wastewater plant for Tottenham
Mobile pilot plant aids small water systems
ISO 14001 being revised
Greywater recycling systems can cut freshwater use by 30%
www.esemag.comNov/Dec 2014
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FEATURES
ISSN-0835-605X • Nov/Dec 2014 Vol. 27 No. 6 • Issued November 2014
6 In Memoriam - Tom Davey
10 Mobile water treatment pilot plant helps
determine best process
14 New wastewater treatment plant will allow
Tottenham to expand
18 District water metering project cuts water loss rates
20 High quality welding is essential to product quality and longevity
24 Unraveling solutions to overwhelmed sewers
26 Environmental standard ISO 14001 being revised
29 Greywater recycling systems can cut freshwater use by 30%
30 Improving community-WWTP relationships
32 Kingston installs watertight maintenance holes
34 How can we accelerate municipal project delivery?
38 Consultants must respond to climate change impacts
42 Genomics and the evolution of environmental consulting
45 Personal knowledge management is win/win for consultants
49 The future is bright for the environmental service industry
52 New STI standard for underground steel tanks
54 London EFW plant generates almost 25,000 megawatt-hours annually
55 World’s first standard for collapsible fuel tanks released
56 Solar mixers help Pagosa Springs restore its potable water system
57 Laundering facility comes clean with secondary containment tanks
58 Alternative spill response training strategies are vital
61 Oil skimming technology helps firms meet regulations and recover lost product
62 Precast concrete structures used for massive Toronto stormwater retention tank
Contents
DEPARTMENTS
Environmental News . 70-74Product Showcase . . . 64-69Professional Cards . . . 70-74Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Editor and Publisher STEVE DAVEYEmail: [email protected]
Assistant Editor PETER DAVEYEmail: [email protected]
Founding Editor TOM DAVEY
Sales Director PENNY DAVEYEmail: [email protected]
Sales Representative DENISE SIMPSON Email: [email protected]
Accounting SANDRA DAVEYEmail: [email protected]
Circulation Manager DARLANN PASSFIELDEmail: [email protected]
Design and Production EINAR RICE
Technical Advisory Board
Archis Ambulkar, Brinjac Engineering, PA
Gary Burrows, City of London
Jim Bishop, Consulting Chemist, Ontario
Patrick Coleman, Black & Veatch
Bill DeAngelis, Associated Engineering
William Fernandes, Region of Peel
Eric MacDonald, Cole Engineering Group
Marie Meunier, John Meunier Inc., Québec
Peter J. Paine, Environment Canada
Tony Petrucci, Stantec, Markham
Cordell Samuels, Region of Durham
Environmental Science & Engineering is a bi-monthly business publication of Environmental Science & Engineering Publications Inc. An all Canadian publication, ES&E provides authoritative editorial coverage of Canada’s municipal and industrial environmental control systems and drinking water treatment and distribution.
Readers include consulting engineers, industrial plant managers and engineers, key municipal, provincial and federal environmental officials, water and wastewater plant operators and contractors.
Information contained in ES&E has been compiled from sources believed to be correct. ES&E cannot be responsible for the accuracy of articles or other editorial matter. Articles in this magazine are intended to provide information rather than give legal or other professional advice. Articles being submitted for review should be emailed to [email protected].
Canadian Publications Mail Sales Second Class MailProduct Agreement No. 40065446 Registration No. 7750
Undeliverable copies, advertising space orders, copy, artwork, proofs, etc., should be sent to: Environmental Science & Engineering, 220 Industrial Pkwy. S., Unit 30, Aurora, Ontario, Canada, L4G 3V6, Tel: (905)727-4666, Fax: (905) 841-7271, Web site: www.esemag.com
ll
Page 54
Page 20
Page 62
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine6 | November/December 2014
It is with great sadness that I an-
nounce the passing of Tom Davey,
dear husband, father, grandfather
and Founding Editor of Environ-
mental Science & Engineering
Magazine. Editorial comments were
Tom’s forte, so it is fitting that his
Memoriam appear where his mus-
ings did for so many years.
Working in a family business, I
had the rare privilege of getting to
know my dad more closely than
most sons can and to see his pro-
fessional impact. We worked to-
gether, cottaged together and
shared a passion for swimming,
automobiles and motorcycles. It
is heartwarming to know that Tom
lived long enough to see his grand-
son Peter become part of the jour-
nalistic fraternity, when he joined
ES&E as assistant editor, and his
other grandson Mark, graduate as
a chemical engineer.
Tom Davey was born in 1930
in Lancashire, a depressed
area in northern England. The
family was far from poor as
Tom’s mother owned a very prosperous
business and his father was a highly paid
coal miner. Tom initially showed little in-
clination for scholarship, but he learned
to sight-read music easily. By the age of
16, he was earning money playing the ac-
cordion in a band. As a teenager, he also
competed in Lancashire swim meets as a
water polo player.
Leaving school at 14, which was typ-
ical in that era, he was apprenticed to
become a plumber and property repairer.
At 21, Tom was drafted into the Royal
Air Force and spent his National Service
years as a military policeman and dog
handler. Upon leaving the RAF, he ran
into a series of jobs, including that of a
lathe operator at Leyland Motors. While
he found it fascinating to make one com-
plex component on a capstan lathe, he
found it boring beyond measure to make
several thousand.
He then responded to an invitation to
try for a place at Plater Hall, a college in
Oxford. There were no exams, but appli-
cants had to write a series of essays. The
college liked his essays – asked for more
– then sent someone down to interview
him. The town council also gave him an
interview and said they would look fa-
vorably on giving him a grant for a three
year live-in course at the college.
But with almost a year to wait, Tom
got restless and decided on the spur of
the moment to emigrate alone to Can-
ada. He had a tough time getting any
work, but his RAF police training came
in useful. The newly formed Metropoli-
tan Toronto Police accepted him after he
passed the exams.
His first job was in Traffic Division
and life seemed perfect for a 26-year
old. He was riding a Harley Davidson,
armed with a revolver and earning near-
ly $5,000 a year, at a time when new
homes in Metro Toronto could be had
for $10,500.
Tom and Sandra (née Turner) were
married in Mimico in 1959. By then,
Tom had sold some of his articles and
Sandra encouraged him to take a jour-
nalism course at the University of Toron-
to. This was the most profound learning
experience of his life. The young family
returned to England for a while, where
I was born in 1961. Tom had a great job
as a feature writer in London’s famed
Fleet Street and life was good for three
years.
Then the family decided to try Aus-
tralia. They disembarked at Melbourne,
where Tom got a job as a senior news-
paper reporter. Later, he transferred to
the Australian Broadcasting Corpora-
tion’s international desk, called Radio
Australia. The work was very rigorous,
often requiring 4 a.m. to noon shifts or
midnight to 8 a.m. It was great train-
ing though. The editors had to develop
a deep understanding of politics, cur-
rent affairs, geography and economics.
However, the environment was seldom
in the news in those days.
Their daughter, Penny (ES&E’s
Sales Director) was born in Melbourne
in 1964. But, when a job opening be-
came available in Tasmania, the ABC
shipped the whole family – lock, stock
and babies – by sea across the Bass
Strait. Here Tom worked on both radio
and TV projects. The ABC generously
continued overleaf...
Tom, Penny and Steve at an annual 5S Society lunch.
In Memoriam
Thomas Peter DaveyJune 8, 1930 - November 25, 2014
Tom with his Metro Toronto Police
Harley Davidson.
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine8 | November/December 2014
paid for him to go to the University of
Tasmania one day a week. Tom wrote
for the university paper, joined the arts
faculty debating team, and swam centre
forward for the varsity water polo team.
They might well have stayed in Aus-
tralia, but Sandra’s father became se-
riously ill, so they made the decision
to return to England in 1967. After six
months in England, Sandra’s father died,
so they decided to return to Toronto. Af-
ter a brief stint on newspapers, Tom got
a job as editor of Water and Pollution Control Magazine in 1968 and Canadi-an Consulting Engineer in 1971. Later,
Tom became publications and science
editor at the University of Toronto’s In-
stitute for Environmental Studies before
founding Davcom in 1974. Davcom edit-
ed magazines for Southam Publications,
newsletters and reports for the federal
government, the U of T, and such clients
as CIDA, Gore & Storrie Ltd. and Proc-
tor and Redfern Ltd.
During this time, Tom also lectured
at McGill, Trent and Queen’s Universi-
ties, U of T, Humber College and other
learning institutions. He was a speaker at
a World Health Organization meeting in
Rome, Italy, the keynote speaker at the
Sixth National Conference on Drink-
ing Water in B.C. and many other con-
ferences. He served as president of the
Canadian Science Writers Association.
He also won many writing awards in the
U.S. and Canada.
Tom and I launched Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine in
January 1988. Daughter Penny joined
the firm later that year. Wife Sandra is
still an editor at ES&E.
Tom Davey, throughout his distin-
guished career of over 50 years, demon-
strated exceptional leadership in the
championing of environmental issues in
the water environment industry in On-
tario and across Canada. His work has
traversed a broad spectrum of writing
and presentations to both environmental
professionals, and lay audiences, often
translating complex technical environ-
mental issues for the public without the
loss of scientific accuracy.
Tom won some 30 awards for his
writing on environmental issues. Three
prestigious international awards of note
were bestowed upon Tom in recognition
of his contributions to increased knowl-
edge of, concern for, and commitment
to the environment, namely:
• In 1980, Tom became the first Ca-
nadian to be awarded the J.H. Neal
award from the American Business
Press for a series of articles on U.S.
environmental policies.
• In 1980, the WPCF (now the Water
Environment Federation) awarded
Tom its Harry E. Schlenz Medal - the
first Canadian to be so honoured.
• In 1982, Tom won a second J.H. Neal
award.
• In 1992, Tom received the Canadian
Government’s top Environmental
Achievement Award in the field of
“Outstanding Communications for En-
vironmental Awareness.” This award
was recognized by a personal letter of
congratulations from Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney, stating that “you have
contributed in a significant way to pro-
tecting, conserving and rehabilitating
the environment.”
• In 2002, Tom won an Award of Merit
from the American Water Works As-
sociation.
• In 2010, Tom received the first Geoff
Scott Memorial Award from the Water
Environment Association of Ontario.
In addition to countless magazine
and newspaper articles, he authored
three books: Recollections, a history of
water pollution control in Ontario, All the Views Fit to Print and For Whom The Polls Tell, both environmental an-
thologies.
Tom Davey was well known, high-
ly respected and a credit to his profes-
sion. He was extremely proud to have
conceived and help launch the Aurora
Writers Group, which continues to this
day. Tom retired from ES&E in 2008
and was later made a Lifetime Member
of the Water Environment Association
of Ontario in recognition of his contri-
butions.
He is survived by his wife Sandra,
daughter Penny, son Steve (Colleen) and
grandsons, Peter and Mark Davey.
Steve Davey is Editor of Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine. Email: [email protected]
(Psst. Dad, as one journalist to another -30-)
Peter Laughton, then President of R.V. Anderson Associates with Sandra and Tom.
Tom (centre) receives his AWWA Award.
March/April 2014 | 9 www.esemag.com
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine10 | November/December 2014
Water Treatment
Determining and validating
the best water treatment
technologies to meet the
unique needs of small, rural
and First Nations communities (SRCs)
has gone mobile, thanks to a public-pri-
vate consortium.
RES’EAU-WaterNET is a Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research
Council (NSERC) Strategic Network
founded in 2008; it is based at the Uni-
versity of British Columbia (UBC).
This year, RES’EAU WaterNET and its
partners have launched the mobile water
treatment pilot plant (MWTPP), which
contains a range of water treatment sys-
tems.
The pilot plant is at the forefront of
RES’EAU WaterNET’s Community
Circle approach to innovation, a model
that takes research out of the laboratory
and into the real world. It allows the in-
corporation of stakeholders’ experience
and insight at the earliest stages of the
problem-solving process. Network in-
vestigators work closely with commu-
nities to understand the limitations and
constraints they face and identify re-
search priorities. The ultimate goal is to
produce novel, integrated solutions that
are effective for the community.
The Living Lab consists of a 6.4 me-
tre-long dual-axle cargo trailer, trans-
formed into a flexible water treatment
pilot plant. It contains a wide range of
water treatment systems, including var-
ious types of filtration (a self-cleaning
filter, bag filter and cartridge filters), an
ion exchange unit, an activated carbon
unit, and both conventional and vacuum
UV systems for disinfection. It can also
chlorinate the treated water to check for
disinfection residuals.
The MWTPP was designed to evalu-
ate the various treatment processes, in-
dividually or in combination, at differ-
ent SRCs. It uses the community’s raw
water as its water source. Flexibility in
the design is accomplished by installing
bypass piping around each of the treat-
ment technologies.
The Lytton First Nation, Nickeyeah
Reserve, British Columbia, recently un-
derwent comprehensive water system
upgrades. These included the construc-
tion of a new water intake, water treat-
ment plant and reservoir. Prior consul-
tations were held with the community’s
personnel regarding the existing treat-
ment system, and the future system’s
operation. As part of the consultations,
it was also brought to light that residents
disliked the unstable chlorine residual
that resulted from changes in organic
content of the source water.
“It is important for the success of
the project to have sufficient commu-
nity input during the design phase,”
said Jim Brown, maintenance manager
and operation supervisor at Lytton First
Nation. Brown organized the commu-
nity input and fully collaborated with
the RES’EAU team at various stages of
the project. “We require a cost-effective
system that can handle our source water
challenges, and one that can be operated
reliably using the resources we have in
the community,” he further stated.
The MWTPP was first deployed in
Lytton First Nation earlier this summer.
It served three purposes: to investigate
different water treatment technologies;
to gather data for the design of Nicke-
yeah Reserves’s new water treatment
plant; and to provide training to the wa-
ter operators in Lytton First Nation. continued overleaf...
Mobile water treatment pilot plant helps determine best process By George Thorpe
The new RES’EAU WaterNET mobile plant tested raw water at Lytton First Nation, Nickeyeah Indian Reserve, B.C.
Left to Right: Irfan Gehlen (Kerr Wood Leidal), Lytton operators Warren Brown and Jim Brown, Ted Molyneux (AANDC),
Madjid Mohseni (UBC/RES’EAU) and George Thorpe (BI Pure Water).
•entire plant.
• en r in e en te n l an pr t l i e tr e pl n pla i pli it r l n ter re ti n in i i nin an aintenan e t .
• r pletel i ital plat r inte rate ea le l int r ntr l te .• ali rate ea re an ent. it e a e l a e ti e an ne
it tr e en r li e le ana e ent plete ali rati n re r tan ar ana e ent an er i e i t r .
. a.en re . anal i
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine12 | November/December 2014
Water Treatment
The results of the experimental runs
were used to design the new treatment
plant, which employs several types of
filtration, UV for primary disinfection
and chlorine for secondary disinfection.
The operators were exposed to the op-
eration and maintenance of the systems
in the MWTPP and trained to keep the
system running at peak efficiency.
John Bergese was the research en-
gineer and project coordinator for the
operation of the plant at Lytton First
Nation. He was assisted by UBC engi-
neering students. “Taking the research
from a laboratory to the field was in-
spiring. It is a great tool for conduct-
ing research, and to train students and
community operators. They get to
sense what it feels like being in the lab-
oratory while being in the real world,”
he said.
The MWTPP will also investigate
various water research topics. The par-
allel installation of a conventional UV
lamp with a vacuum UV lamp will com-
pare UV and VUV irradiations with
small flows (<15 l/min), for the remov-
al of organics, disinfection byproduct
precursors, and chemicals of emerging
concern that are becoming more com-
mon in many water supplies. A chem-
ical metering tank installed before the
lamps allows for the dosing of emerg-
ing contaminants or microbiological
contaminants for the specified research
questions.
Partners who collaborated on the
development of the mobile water treat-
ment pilot plant were: UBC, the Peter
Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
(PWSI), IC-IMPACTS Networks of
Centres of Excellence, Trojan Tech-
nologies and BI Pure Water Inc. RES-
EAU also worked closely with Aborig-
inal Affairs and Northern Development
Canada (AANDC).
George Thorpe, P.Eng., is with BI Pure Water (Canada) Inc.
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine14 | November/December 2014
Wastewater Treatment
A new wastewater treatment
facility capable of achieving
an effluent yearly average
phosphorus concentration
of 0.07 mg/l, is being built by the Town
of New Tecumseth to serve the commu-
nity of Tottenham. This effluent concen-
tration is considered to be the current
limit of technology in wastewater treat-
ment, as achievable by two-stage tertia-
ry treatment.
Project historyNew Tecumseth in southwestern On-
tario, is an amalgamated municipality in-
cluding the towns of Alliston, Tottenham
and Beeton, as well as the surrounding
rural area of Tecumseth Township. In
2010, the Town completed an Adden-
dum to the 2005 Class Environmental
Assessment, to review the preferred al-
ternative for wastewater servicing. The
2010 Addendum identified replacement
of the existing Tottenham wastewater
treatment plant with a new limit of tech-
nology treatment facility, discharging to
Beeton Creek.
Recognizing that the allowable phos-
phorus loading limit for this receiver
would require a concentration less than
achievable by a limit of technology fa-
cility, a non-point source control pro-
gram has been accepted by the Ontario
Ministry of the Environment to reduce
loading from other sources. This is to
achieve no net increase in overall phos-
phorus loading to the receiver.
Non-point source load reductions
include a mix of urban stormwater sys-
tem retrofits and rural best management
practices.
The wastewater treatment facilityThe new Tottenham WWTP is de-
signed for an annual average flow ca-
pacity of 4,082 m3/day, providing ade-
quate capacity for growth in Tottenham
to at least 2031. The new treatment fa-
cilities are located in what was one of
four pre-existing lagoons. This allows
the plant to be completed before the
majority of the existing facilities are
decommissioned. The new facility in-
cludes:
• Screening (6 mm) and vortex grit re-
moval in a headworks building.
• Extended aeration process, consisting
of bioreactors with fine pore diffusers
and secondary clarification.
• Two-stage tertiary treatment using bal-
lasted clarification (complete with 6
mm perforated plate tertiary screening)
and shallow-bed sand filtration. This
is all located in a new administration/
tertiary building.
• Chemical addition for enhanced phos-
phorus removal and pH control.
• UV disinfection.
• Aerobic digestion for sludge stabiliza-
tion.
• Odour control system.
• Biosolids utilization on agricultural
land.
Infrastructure from the existing facil-
ity, which will be reused, includes two
lagoons for temporary storage of flows
exceeding peak day tertiary treatment
design capacity, a lagoon for biosolids
storage during winter periods, and the
existing outfall to Beeton Creek.
Design effluent objectives and limits
for the new Tottenham WWTP are pro-
vided in Table 1. In particular, effective
nitrification and phosphorus removal
are required to meet the stringent efflu-
ent objectives and compliance criteria
as defined by the Water Quality Impact
Assessment. Effluent requirements in-
clude: a seasonal average total ammo-
nia-nitrogen (TAN) compliance con-
centration as low as 0.5 mg/l (May 1 to
September 30), a monthly average total
phosphorus (TP) concentration of 0.1
mg/l, with an annual average TP load re-
quirement of 0.28 kg/day. This is equiv-
alent to a concentration of 0.07 mg/l,
at the annual average flow of 4,082 m3/
day.
The definition and use of seasonal
monthly average effluent concentration
and yearly average load requirements is
a beneficial compliance structure. This
allows some variability in monthly av-
erage concentration up to 0.1 mg/l, so
long as the yearly average load can be
achieved.
Non-point source load reductionsIt was determined that the phospho-
rus loading to Beeton Creek from the
Tottenham WWTP should not exceed
65 kg/year. However, it will produce
continued overleaf...
New wastewater treatment plant will allow Town of Tottenham to expand By Heather Brewer, Ben Samuell, George Godin and Emil Rafanan
A rendering of the new Tottenham wastewater treatment plant.
November/December 2014 | 15 www.esemag.com
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine16 | November/December 2014
an annual TP loading of 104 kg/year,
which is 39 kg/year too high. So, one
condition in the Environmental Com-
pliance Approval (ECA) for the new
WWTP is the implementation of a TP
offset program within five years of issu-
ance of the approval.
The offset program is designed to
achieve an equivalent annual reduction
of TP loading into Beeton Creek and
the broader Innisfil Creek sub-water-
shed. Urban stormwater management
phosphorus offsets are credited on a
2:1 ratio, while rural best management
phosphorus offsets are credited on a 4:1
ratio. The phosphorus load offset poten-
tial from improving existing stormwa-
ter management facilities in the Beeton
Creek watershed, was estimated at ap-
proximately 30 kg/year.
The potential phosphorus loading
reduction associated with rural “tier
1 projects”, such as improved manure
storage facilities for farms located with-
in the watershed, was estimated to be 70
to 135 kg/year. This assumes a 50% up-
take by eligible farms under a directed
outreach and funding program.
As a result, these urban and rural
non-point source controls should to-
gether achieve a phosphorus credit of 33
to 49 kg/year when the applicable credit
ratios are applied.
The instrument for implementation
of the farming best management prac-
tices for offset opportunities is refer-
enced under the Town’s Bylaw 2013-
018 that enacts an agreement with the
Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Au-
thority (NVCA). Under the Conserva-tion Authorities Act, the NVCA has a
broad mandate to manage the natural
resources of the watershed in which it
has jurisdiction. This includes protect-
ing and restoring the health of local wa-
tercourses.
Under the ECA for the new Tottenham
WWTP, the Town is initially required to
submit yearly status and progress reports
on the TP offset program. After two con-
secutive years with TP offset credits not
less than 39 kg/year, reporting frequency
will drop to three years.
Heather Brewer, Ben Samuell and George Godin are with Conestoga-
Rovers & Associates Limited (A GHD Company). Emil Rafanan is with XCG
Consultants Limited. For more information, contact
Wastewater Treatment
Headworks and administration-tertiary buildings under construction, Oct. 2014.
Parameter Effluent Concentration Objective (mg/l)
Effluent Concentration Limit
(mg/l)
Effluent Load Limit (kg/day)
Five day Carbonaceous
Biochemical Oxygen Demand
5 6 -
Total Suspended Solids 10 15 -
Total Phosphorus 0.07 0.1
(Monthly average)
0.28
(Annual average)
Total Ammonia-Nitrogen
November 1 to March 31 3.0 3.3 -
April 1 to April 30 1.0 1.2 -
May 1 to September 30 0.35 0.5 -
October 1 to October 31 1.0 1.2 -
Table 1. Effluent objectives and limits for the new Tottenham WWTP.
Better
performance,
at a lower
operational cost
ratio
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine18 | November/December 2014
Water Distribution
The White House Utility District
(WHUD) is one of the largest
water and sewer utilities in
Tennessee, serving approxi-
mately 90,000 customers with 30,000
connections, across a 1,550-km2 area.
White House has some 1,600 km of
distribution mains and 21 storage facil-
ities. It produces on average 53,000 m3/
day and had a reported 30% non-reve-
nue water (NRW).
In late 2013, the District started to
seriously look at how to reduce the level
of NRW. Due to the large geographical
size and mix of pipework material, they
decided that planning and implementing
district metered areas (DMAs) would be
the most efficient way to reduce NRW.
Principles of a DMA The key principle behind DMA
management is the use of flow data to
determine the level of leakage within
a defined area of the water distribution
network. Establishing DMAs, which
have been used in Europe for decades,
enables current levels of leakage to be
determined in any one part of a system.
Consequently, leak location activities
can be prioritized.
By monitoring flows in DMAs, it is
possible to identify existing and new
bursts, so that leakage can be main-
tained at the optimum level for that
area. Data received from each DMA is
used to compare one part of any system
against another. Historical data of any
given DMA is used to compare current
flow with previous days. This data al-
lows a utility to react quickly to areas
with high leakage, and confirm and re-
pair leaks as soon as they happen.
Levels of leakage will continue to
rise as time elapses, unless an ongoing
leakage control program is implement-
ed. DMA management should, there-
fore, be considered to reduce, monitor,
and subsequently maintain low leakage
levels in a water distribution network.
Fundamental to DMA management
is the correct analysis of flow data, in or-
der to determine whether there is excess
leakage, and identify the presence of new
leaks. The extent of leakage can be gauged
by assessing the 24-hour flow pattern of a
network. A limited variation between the
minimum and peak flow, particularly in a
network with little industrial night use, is
indicative of a leaky network.
However, this approach does not
allow the leakage level to be directly
quantified. Leakage is most accurately
determined when customer consump-
tion is at a minimum during the night,
and is referred to as the minimum night
flow (MNF). In addition to daily data
and trends, a water balance check can be
executed each month to gauge the actual
NRW in any given DMA.
WHUD considered various DMA
flow meter options, and decided that the
HydrINS 2 single point electrometric
insertion meter, from Hydreka, offered
the flexibility and data needed to focus
on their NRW reduction and control
program.
ImplementationIn early 2014, WHUD tested this
technology to ensure it met their re-
quirements. In spring 2014 they invest-
ed in a further 25 DMA meters, which
would remotely send daily data, flow
and pressure information to their head-
quarters.
This data is analyzed on a daily basis
to maximize the benefits of DMA man-
agement to the utility. In conjunction
with the meter installations, WHUD
invested in leak detection equipment,
acoustic noise loggers and a ground mi-
crophone, for in-house use.
This enabled them to be reactive and
focus leak detection efforts on DMAs
with high usage/flow. This practice en-
sures they are as efficient as possible
Reducing non-revenue water through district metered areas By Simon Wick and Pat Harrell
DMA management should, therefore, be considered to reduce, monitor, and subsequently maintain low
leakage levels in a water distribution network.
Example of the acoustic loggers deployment map.
November/December 2014 | 19 www.esemag.com
Water Distribution
in targeting leakage, as they are able to
concentrate on high priority areas first.
It also allows the volume of NRW (in-
cluding leakage) in any one DMA to be
calculated. All data is manually inputted
into a GIS, including the acoustic noise
logging data for increased awareness,
tracking and acoustic foot printing.
WHUD continues to use this data
from their zone and DMA’s meters to
prioritize their proactive leak detection
efforts. Their objective is to have the
distribution system 100% covered by
DMAs in two years. In addition, they
plan to expand on their proactive leak
detection surveys and evaluate solutions
to ensure the analytical process for the
DMA data is as automatic and as fast as
possible. This will enable them to reach
their target of less than 15% non-reve-
nue water.
Simon Wick is with Matchpoint Water Asset Management. Pat Harrell
is with the White House Utility District. Email: [email protected],
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Overview of Phase 1 DMA plan. The Hydreka HydrINS 2 meter.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine20 | November/December 2014
Manufacturing
Mention welding and the
most common picture
that appears in a person’s
imagination is of the soli-
tary welder behind a mask with a bright
bluish, whitish light shining brilliantly
around them. But what’s really happen-
ing behind all those arcs and sparks?
Welding is a ubiquitous operation
in the manufacture and construction of
everything from consumer goods to ve-
hicles and bridges to processing plants.
Yet, despite its wide range of applica-
tion, few understand what is really go-
ing on “behind the mask.”
Welding is one of the most flexible
and adaptive joining technologies that
exist today. It can join materials from
less than one millimetre in thickness up
to hundreds of millimetres thick and can
be used to join steel, aluminum, copper
and almost anything you can think of.
The science of welding touches on a
wide range of disciplines, electrical, met-
allurgical, thermodynamics and more.
Suffice it to say, welding can be com-
plex and requires real expertise to ensure
it is done both correctly and safely. Like
many industries, the use of standards
to control the operation of welding is
critical. Canada enjoys a long history of
world-class standards in the discipline
of welding, and our excellent track re-
cord in safe welded infrastructure is due
in large part to these standards.
Canada has two distinct sets of stan-
dards as it relates to welding:
For boilers, pressure vessels and
pressure piping, the normal standard
that is used is the Canadian Stan-
dards Association (CSA) B51 “Boil-er, pressure vessel, and pressure piping code.” This is an adoption
of American Society of Mechanical
Engineers Section IX “Welding and brazing qualifications.”
For structures, machinery and other
non-pressure applications, the CSA
“W” series of standards is normal-
ly used. The most common CSA
welding standard in use in this area
is CSA W47.1 “Certification of com-panies for fusion welding of steel.”
Although similar in some ways, the
two sets of standards are very different.
They have been developed for very dif-
ferent types of products that have very
different performance expectations once
in service. It is critical for owners, engi-
neers and other specifiers to understand
what standard(s) is applicable for the
project at hand. It is not a matter of one
standard being better than the other; rath-
er it is selecting the right standard for the
right product and service conditions.
Welding in the pressure vessel/
piping area is normally regulated at a
provincial level by government agen-
cies such as the Alberta Boiler Safety
Association or the Technical Standards
& Safety Authority. Although the base
standards noted previously are the same
across Canada, each agency may have a
slightly different approach as to how the
standards are implemented.
Non-pressure standards, on the other
hand, are the same all across Canada.
There are several CSA standards that
may be used, the choice typically de-
pendent on the material being welded.
The Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB)
is the national certification body that
oversees the application of these stan-
dards.
As noted previously, the most com-
mon CSA welding standard used in
Canada is CSA W47.1 “Certification of companies for fusion welding of steel.”
This standard applies to a wide range
of applications: structures, buildings,
bridges, machinery, equipment, cranes,
tanks, non-pressure piping and antenna
towers, to name a few.
CSA W47.1 is a company certifica-
tion standard and is intended to provide
assurance that the company has all the
components in place to produce a sound
weld. The standard is based on the un-
derstanding that there are three key
components that must be in place to en-
sure a sound, high quality weld:
1. Competent people making the welds
(the welders).
2. A proven recipe for making the
welds (the welding procedure).
continued overleaf...
Welding: What’s really happening behind the mask?By J. Craig Martin
Canada enjoys a long history of world-class welding standards.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine22 | November/December 2014
3. Competent shop floor and engineering
staff (the welding supervisor/engineer).
All these components are of great im-
portance and a welding company cannot
claim to be certified to CSA W47.1 un-
less all three are shown to be in place.
A great weld results from more than
just the skill of the welder. Although
this is an important element, the welder
must also know what they are welding
and how to weld it. This is where the
welding procedure comes into play.
Training, supervisory and engineering
personnel must also control the entire
welding operation. There is risk of a
poor quality weld if any one of these el-
ements is missing.
An additional method to ensure high
quality and safe welds is the concept of
an independent third party to confirm that
those welding companies that choose to
become certified do, in fact, meet the key
requirements of the certification stan-
dard. This is where the CWB comes in.
When the first CSA W47.1 standard
was introduced in 1947, the industry
agreed that a single body should be
formed to administer the standard. The
objective was to create a level playing
field by ensuring consistent application
of the stated requirements. This would
in turn help guarantee that welded struc-
tures were of high quality and safe.
In response, the CWB was formed as
a non-government, not-for-profit, industry
funded organization, acting as an inde-
pendent certification body for the welding
industry. Its primary mandate, however, is
the protection of public safety.
Since its creation, the CWB has ex-
panded its role within industry, manag-
ing multiple CSA welding standards for
fabricators, inspectors and welding con-
sumables. Today, there are over 6,500
companies certified by the CWB in over
20 countries around the world.
To prove competence in the practical
application of welding, individual weld-
ers must undergo regular testing. This
is normally done every two years and
welders are examined on each weld-
ing process, welding position and joint
configuration for which they wish to be
qualified. All testing is witnessed by the
CWB and documents of certification are
issued.
For welders to know what they are
welding and how to weld it, a procedure
must be created by the company. This
lists all the variables that may impact
the final quality of the weld. The mate-
rial grade, the filler metal, the welding
parameters, the required preheat and
many other variables must be defined in
what is essentially a recipe for making
the weld. These procedures are created
by the welding supervisor and/or engi-
neer and then independently reviewed
by the CWB for compliance to applica-
ble standards.
Certification is not a one-time event.
All organizations that are certified to
CSA W47.1 must continually comply
with the requirements of certification,
ensuring that new welders are proven to
be competent and that new welding pro-
cedures are developed for new projects
that they undertake.
In addition, the CWB continual-
ly monitors the activities of certified
companies providing on-site audits of
the welding operation at least every six
months. As a not-for-profit certification
body, costs to industry are kept low,
with the typical Canadian fabricator’s
certification fees set at less than $2,500
annually.
Certification brings many benefits to
both the welding industry, and the spec-
ifiers, owners and end users. The weld-
ing industry has realized cost savings
as they leverage certification to man-
age quality issues and reduce rework
and client complaints. For the end user,
specifying certification can help reduce
risk of poor quality or failure.
For some product types, certifica-
tion is mandatory under regulatory re-
quirements or product safety standards.
Buildings, bridges, cranes, platforms,
railings and stairways are some of the
product types where certification is
mandatory for the welded fabricator.
Where certification is not mandatory,
many owners choose to require certifi-
cation by their suppliers or subcontrac-
tors as an extra assurance for quality
and risk reduction.
J. Craig Martin is with the Canadian Welding Bureau.
Email: [email protected]
Manufacturing
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U.S.F.FF Fabrication’s Hatch Safety Grrrrataa e SySyyyststststemememm isisisisss a vaiaiailalalalaaablbblb e e inininnnn a aaa v vvararrrrieieieieiietyy ooooofff f ff ccccccy onnnfifigfigfigfigfigfigururu attioioioooonnns
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine24 | November/December 2014
Wastewater
If people got a good sniff of a rag-
ged wastewater pump and had
to untangle a snarled mess of en-
twined fabric, pumping stations
might get a break from the onslaught
of “flushable” wipes and products clog-
ging their systems.
Yet, there is not much preventing
people from using the toilet as a waste
disposal unit. While some personal hy-
giene companies have started to change
their marketing and product instruc-
tions, there is no definition of what is
“flushable.”
“You can write flushable on any-
thing,” said Robert Haller, executive di-
rector of the Canadian Water and Waste-
water Association (CWWA). “Anything
that disappears when you pull the han-
dle can be called flushable.”
The Association of the Nonwoven
Fabrics Industry defines a flushable
product as one that will pass through
toilets and drainage pipes without ad-
versely impacting plumbing or waste-
water infrastructure and operations.
According to Joe Gemin, an engineer
with AECOM, the problem is that once
these fabrics are in the sewerage system,
or worse, spun inside a pump, they in-
tertwine to form a rope-like mass. This
can result in a stalled pump or a sewage
backup.
The CWWA has been working for
some time, trying to push through reg-
ulations governing the labeling and
disposal of wipes. However, the
demand for these products is huge
and growing. It is estimated that
sales of disposable wipes is grow-
ing at 5% a year in North America
and will reach $2.5 billion in 2016.
Haller estimates that munici-
palities in Canada face $250 mil-
lion in costs related to removing
garbage from sewerage systems, adding
that this estimate is “on the low end.”
Making matters worse, consumer
habits and efficient fixtures have re-
duced water consumption. This means
that wastewater volume is becoming
smaller, while the solids content is re-
maining the same or increasing.
Sometimes weekly unclogging of
pumps, screens and private drains is
now just part of the job for operators
and treatment plants.
“Everyone is impacted by this, even
if they don’t know it,” said Barry Orr,
spokesperson for the Municipal En-
forcement Sewer Use Group (MESUG).
“If beaches were covered with wipes
and feminine hygiene products, there
would be an outcry.”
Municipalities have a tougher time
rousing public awareness and action,
compared to other growing concerns
such as micro plastics or medicines. At
a recent community event discussing
micro plastics in the Great Lakes,
some 100 people filled the presen-
tation room in Toronto and spoke
loudly about protecting water-
ways.
“Unplugging a pump or grind-
er doesn’t carry the same weight
as environmental concerns over
personal care products (cleansers
using micro plastics) or medicine,” said
Haller. Indeed an image of a seabird, its
stomach full of plastic drew an emotion-
al response from the crowd in Toronto.
An intertwined pile of pump debris may
not do the same.
Fabric manufacturers have published
Unraveling solutions to overwhelmed sewer systemsBy Peter Davey
Municipalities in Canada face $250 million in costs related to
removing garbage from sewerage systems.
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November/December 2014 | 25 www.esemag.com
Wastewater
a guidance document for flushable
wipes and a proposed ISO commit-
tee has been launched to provide
a definition on what is “flushable”
and/or “dispersible.”
On the treatment side, wastewater
equipment manufacturers have in-
troduced new technologies to move
wastewater without clogging pumps.
According to KSB Pumps, there
are two basic methods to transport
wastewater containing solids. One
way is to use pumps with a large
enough free passage, so that the
solids will not clog up the pump.
Another is to keep the solids away
from the pump or to reduce the size
of the solids.
This summer, KSB celebrated 25 years
working in Canada with a media open
house. During the event KSB introduced
the AmaDS3 (dry solids separation) sys-
tem to overcome clogged sewage pumps.
Interestingly, the system was described to
the event attendees as a “reverse toilet,”
emulating the main entrance point for the
problem it aims to address.
Raw wastewater first flows into a
separator where a grate separates solids
from liquids. The solids-free wastewater
then runs into a collecting tank where
it remains until a pre-set water level is
reached. When the system is activated,
the collecting tank is pumped out to the
discharge pipe, carrying away the solids
contained by the grate. Once the mini-
mum water level in the collecting tank
is reached, the pump set is stopped.
At this point the inflow check valve
opens again automatically, allowing
the next flow of wastewater to enter
the system.
According to KSB, the system
is well suited for remote mountain
communities that use a lot of lift
stations to transport a small amount
of sewage. As the pumps in the
AmaDS3 system are isolated from
solids carried in wastewater, they
can use higher efficiency impellers
and enjoy a longer service life with
less maintenance.
The system is being used in Eu-
rope, in such countries as Germany,
Slovenia, Poland, Italy and Den-
mark. It is ideal for any pumping station
struggling with garbage and debris.
Peter Davey is the assistant editor of Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine. Email: [email protected]
For more information, visit: www.ksb.com
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine26 | November/December 2014
Certification
ISO 14001, the world’s most pop-
ular standard for environmental
management, is now under review,
with an updated version due in ear-
ly 2015. Over 250,000 organizations are
certified to ISO 14001 and while it con-
tinues to be as relevant as ever, the revi-
sion will take into consideration a num-
ber of issues to ensure organizations are
able to grow in a sustainable way.
What are the benefits of ISO 14001?ISO 14001 enables companies to:
• Reduce waste and energy use through
better environmental management.
• Improve efficiency and cut the cost of
running a business.
• Expand business opportunities by
demonstrating compliance.
• Meet legal obligations to win greater
stakeholder and customer trust.
• Prepare for the changing business
landscape confidently.
Why is ISO 14001 being revised?All ISO standards are reviewed ev-
ery five years to establish if a revision
is required to keep it current and rel-
evant for the marketplace. The future
ISO 14001:2015 will respond to the latest
trends and ensure compatibility with oth-
er management system standards such as
ISO 9001.
What will be the main changes to the standard?
The new version will include a re-
quirement to understand the organiza-
tion’s context in order to better manage
risk. More emphasis will be placed on
leaders within organizations to promote
environmental management. In addition,
there will be a shift towards improving
environmental performance rather than
improving the management system.
Two significant actionsThe revision has been written using
the new high level structure which is
common to all new management sys-
tems standards. This will allow easy in-
tegration when implementing more than
one management system.
The second action comes from the
“Future Challenges for Environmental
Management Systems (EMS) Study
Group”, which evaluated the potential
implications of evolving stakeholder ex-
pectations and new developments in en-
vironmental management systems. The
study group analyzed 11 key themes
along with the obstacles and opportu-
nities to increase uptake of ISO 14001
in small organizations. This will allow
them to control environmental impacts
in the supply chain, engage stakeholders
and communicate externally.
Recommendations The initial Berlin meeting of ISO/
Technical Committee (TC) 207 sum-
marized the ISO standards development
process for working group members;
they are responsible for the revision
process. It established a timeline and
code of conduct, reviewed details in the
two key reports forming the basis for
the revision and provided guidelines on
writing standards.
In total, the Future Challenges Study
Group tabled 25 recommendations for
consideration in the new revision of ISO
14001:
1. When considering new require-
ments in a revised version of ISO
14001, one should remember that
the EMS standard is a tool to im-
prove environmental management.
So, new requirements should not be
set in such a way that they only re-
flect “best in class” levels that could
dissuade or exclude entry level or-
ganizations. The use of “maturity
matrixes” should be considered to
show how requirements could be
applied in an increasingly compre-
hensive manner.
2. An organization should retain
the responsibility to align its ISO
14001 processes with its environ-
mental and business priorities.
3. Strengthen focus on subjects such
as transparency and accountabili-
ty in environmental management
issues and performance, and value
chain influence and responsibility.
4. Express environmental manage-
ment more clearly as contributing
Revision is underway for ISO 14001
By Anne Marie Pizzitelli and Katie Bird
November/December 2014 | 27 www.esemag.com
Certification to sustainable development which
is the key pillar of social responsi-
bility.
5. Broaden/clarify the concept of
“prevention of pollution.”
6. Consider addressing other environ-
mental principles from ISO 26000
(social responsibility), Clause 6.5.
7. Consider aligning language be-
tween ISO 26000 and ISO 14001.
8. Clarify the ISO 14001 requirements
for improving environmental per-
formance.
9. Strengthen performance evaluation
as part of ISO 14001 4.5.1; consider
how performance evaluation is ad-
dressed in ISO 14031 (environmen-
tal performance evaluation), ISO
50001 (energy management), and
in the EMAS III (EU Eco-Manage-
ment and Audit Scheme) and Glob-
al Reporting Initiative.
10. Communicate the approach to and
mechanism of achieving legal com-
pliance in ISO 14001.
11. Address the concept of “demon-
stration of the commitment to legal
compliance.”
12. Consider including the concept of
demonstrating knowledge and un-
derstanding of the organization’s
compliance status.
13. Emphasize the strategic consider-
ations, benefits and opportunities of
environmental management for or-
ganizations in the introduction and
requirements sections.
14. Strengthen on a strategic level, the
relationship between environmental
management and the core business
of an organization, which are its
products and services and interac-
tion with stakeholders, clients and
suppliers.
15. Use the Joint Technical Coordi-
nation Group’s identical text on
“context of the organization” to
strengthen the link between envi-
ronmental management and the or-
ganization’s overall strategy.
16. Consider the implications of new
business management models in
applying ISO 14001.
17. Draft clear and unambiguous ISO
14001 requirements.
18. Provide clearer guidance in Annex
A to avoid misinterpretation of the
requirements.
19. Maintain the applicability of ISO
14001 to small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). For example,
by drafting simple and understand-
able requirements.
20. Consider the information given in
the European Committee for Stan-
dardization’s Guide 17, guidance
for writing standards, taking into
account micro and SMEs’ needs.
21. Address life cycle thinking and
the value chain perspectives more
clearly in the identification and
evaluation of environmental as-
pects related to products and ser-
vices.
22. Include clear requirements and
guidance on environmental strate-
gy, design and development, pur-
chasing, marketing and sales activ-
ities, in alignment with organiza-
tional priorities.
23. Introduce a more systematic ap-
proach to identifying, consulting
and communicating with stakehold-
ers on environmental issues, based
on the Joint Technical Coordination
Group’s text.
FREE TRIAL: 25 Sample Vials
continued overleaf...
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine28 | November/December 2014
24. Introduce a requirement to estab-
lish an external communication
strategy, including communication
objectives, identification of relevant
interested parties, and a description
of what and when to communicate.
25. Provide guidance to external inter-
ested parties in the Annex on infor-
mation related to the environmental
aspects of products and services.
Where are we in the revision process?
Recent meetings have resolved com-
ments and questions submitted during the
revision process and
have included them in
the ISO 14001 Draft
International Standard.
Major changes to the
document include a
more proactive com-
mitment to protect
the environment from
harm and degradation, as well as re-
quirements to illustrate visible involve-
ment, support and commitment from top
management. The first publicly available
version of the proposed changes to ISO
14001 has been on sale since July 2014.
Anyone with expertise or experience to
offer can comment on the revision.
Next stepsThe committee has been meeting
over the course of 2014 to develop the
new standard and gain consensus from
all countries involved.
Following due process, any changes
deemed necessary by the international
technical committee will be released
as a Final Draft International Standard
(FDIS). This represents the final con-
tents of the proposed standard, and usu-
ally only minor changes are made after
this stage.
Current ISO forecasts indicate that
the ISO FDIS 14001 will be released in
March/April 2015 and the final standard
in the fall of 2015.
ISO 14001:2004 is still valid and
companies will still benefit from im-
plementing and certifying against it.
Certification to ISO 14001:2004 will be
allowed for a period of time following
the publication of the new version of the
standard.
Anne Marie Pizzitelli is with BSI Group. Katie Bird is with the ISO. Email:
[email protected], [email protected]
Certification
The first publicly available version of the
proposed changes to ISO 14001 has been
on sale since July 2014. Anyone with
expertise or experience to offer can
comment on the revision.
November/December 2014 | 29 www.esemag.com
Water Reuse
Many people are surprised
to learn that toilets are
the single greatest users
of water within a home,
typically accounting for 30% of total
consumption. It really does not make
sense to flush toilets with clean drinking
water.
This is significant for many reasons.
Water rates are increasing throughout
North America an average of 9-10% an-
nually. Many municipalities face water
infrastructure pressures relating to the
supply and treatment of water, including
rising energy costs. In addition, residen-
tial and commercial development is ever
increasing in water stressed areas.
For these reasons, the need for water
reuse solutions has never been greater. A
greywater recycling system can recover
and treat shower and bath water so that
it can be reused for flushing toilets. This
can reduce per household fresh water
consumption by 30%.
For residential builders, the first step
is to “greywater ready” the homes, which
is a fairly simple process. It is important
that the system be installed before the
drywall goes up so that the pipes can be
routed properly (Figure 1).
Isolate shower/bath drainsUsable greywater needs to be iso-
lated in the system. Kitchen greywater
must be avoided completely. Laundry
greywater can be used, but only if it is
treated by a filtration system before it
enters the recycling system. Shower and
bath drains must be isolated and tied to-
gether with 2” ABS piping in the main
floor ceiling. This pipe runs to the me-
chanical room where the recycling sys-
tem is located. This isolates the greywa-
ter for recycling to the toilets.
Install toilet supply linesAfter the greywater is processed in
the recycling unit, it must run to the
toilets. As the water is non-potable, all
lines must be purple PEX or labeled
with marking tape that reads “non-pota-
ble water – do not drink.” One ½” to ¾”
pipe is plumbed from the unit, as a riser,
before branching off to the toilets.
Install overflow and vent lines An overflow line must be installed
into the sanitary pipe system. The over-
flow also has a bypass to the sanitary
drain, in case the system is overload-
ed. This will prevent excess greywater
from backing up to showers/baths. The
system also needs a vent pipe that con-
nects to the same drainage line. The sys-
tem needs to be vented like any other
plumbing fixture. It can be tied to the
most convenient fresh air vent in the
mechanical room (Figure 2).
Additional considerationsIf a manual bypass is chosen, a back-
flow preventer will be required. It is a fair-
ly simple process, but the system must be
installed before the drywall goes up.
The process of “greywater readying”
is not only straightforward, it is inexpen-
sive. Greyter Water Systems has worked
with many production builders across
North America, and the cost to “greywa-
ter ready” a home is generally between
$400 and $600. It takes no more than a
few hours of work and, once the plumb-
ing is done, the opportunity for signifi-
cant water savings exists for years.
It is a great way for homeowners to
save and there is an immediate payback
for developers building in regions where
various water conservation pressures
exist. For example, by installing the in-
frastructure for recycled water systems
within new commercial and residential
buildings, municipalities will often pro-
vide incentives for developers such as
expedited permits.
Mark Sales is with Greyter Water Systems. Email: [email protected]
Household greywater recycling system can cut water consumption by 30% By Mark Sales
Figure 1: Diagram of a home greywater recycling installation.
Figure 2: The system can be tied into
existing fresh air vent lines.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine30 | November/December 2014
Company Profile
The relationship between a
wastewater treatment plant
and the community it serves is
a delicate one. A positive cli-
mate, where public complaints are few,
benefits are obvious and costs can be
contained, is ideal. A negatively charged
climate can make navigating municipal
red tape all the more challenging. Fu-
ture improvements can run into approv-
al snags if negativity sways the thinking
of municipal government and public
works boards that approve them.
With this in mind, it is obvious that
shepherding this relationship is critical.
The right technologies can help wastewa-
ter treatment plants (WWTPs) to position
themselves in key areas visible to politi-
cians, board members and residents.
There are three ways that WWTPs
impact the
• Cost of providing services.
• Expelling odiferous gases.
• Producing end products.
Cost of providing servicesCost reduction factors generated by
technology use in the WWTP, range
from labour costs to component rebuilds.
Cardston WWTP in Alberta, and
Oostburg WWTP in Wisconsin are ex-
periencing this in their budgets’ bottom
line. Cardston has seen a reduction in
man hours necessary for maintenance
and management. Huber’s screw press
helps the team to eliminate operational
maintenance during and after shift hours
and manual labour costs in handling
cleaner, lighter, dryer, safer sludge.
Because of the Huber fine screens
that Oostburg uses, the WWTP has re-
duced the workload on downstream
components so much, that rebuilds to
these components are required far less
often. Since each rebuild can cost sev-
eral thousand dollars, this benefit has
become a significant budget bonus.
Disposal and haul-off costs are easy
to see and track at the Isle LaPlume
WWTP in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. In
grit disposal alone, the plant reduced
its costs by 79% by using Huber’s grit
washer. Cleaner, dryer, safer grit is dis-
posed of more easily and cheaply. These
savings help the plant to keep public use
rates from rising.
Huber’s belt dryer in the WWTP in
Mooresville, North Carolina, has re-
duced sludge handling costs, including
tipping and hazard fees at the landfill.
Producing an end product that is only
3% water was such a drastic reduction
from their previous end product, that the
plant’s yearly cost of sludge handling
was reduced by $200,000.
In North Las Vegas, Huber’s fine
screens are the final barrier between dam-
aging contaminants and the delicate mem-
brane strands in the plant’s membrane
bioreactor. The impact of damage here
could reach up to a million dollars or more
for catastrophic repair and replacement.
Expelling odiferous gasesOdour is a huge problem when it
comes to the perception of residents
who live in smelling distance of the
WWTP or just drive close enough to
smell it once in a while. While a com-
pletely odour-free WWTP is near im-
possible, the offensive gases that waft
from the plant site can be reduced. A
step in the right direction here can go
a long way with the residents who may
have previously complained.
The Cardston WWTP in Alberta saw
its impact on the community improve af-
ter putting Huber’s screw press in place.
The close-knit community in the plant’s
service area had some issues with odours
and had always endured them because
the free fertilizer provided to farmers
was a tremendous help in preparing their
barley fields. This wasn’t a trade-off that
the plant wanted to sustain. In fact, one
of the central goals was to improve the
plant’s relationship with the community.
One of the ways this could be done, was
by reducing the offensive odours the plant
produced. The odour wasn’t just evident
at the plant. It traveled to the farms where
the fertilizer was being used.
Before implementing the screw press,
supernatant was loaded with biosolids re-
turning to the plant. This overloaded the
rotating biological contactors and caused
odour. Because of the screw press’ de-
Technology helps to improve community-WWTP relationships By T.R. Gregg
Cardston, Alberta, WWTP screw press.
Grit washer in Isle La Plume WWTP.
November/December 2014 | 31 www.esemag.com
Company Profile
watering efficiency, supernatant recycled
back to the wastewater plant for treat-
ment is clear and free from odour.
For the Isle La Plume WWTP in
LaCrosse, odours were a major prob-
lem and organics were the source. By
using Huber’s grit washer technology,
the cleansing process became easy. It is
incorporated into the processing of the
flow so that everything remains stream-
lined and efficient.
End product improvementsThe financial impact of unsafe, dirty
and heavy end products is significant.
Isle la Plume WWTP’s end prod-
uct grit is described now as “sandbox
grade.” Washing produces cleaner grit
because the odiferous organics are
gone. This makes it safe to send to the
landfill and has a tremendous impact on
plant compliance and public perception.
Since putting Huber’s belt dryer in
place, the Mooresville plant has elimi-
nated any issues or surcharges with dis-
posing of their sludge. The Class A end
product is quite desirable for use and the
plant is putting plans in place to begin to
package and market it. That will offset
even more of its operating costs.
Hill Canyon WWTP in California,
has boosted its green efforts through us-
ing Huber’s screening technology. Con-
taminants are cleared out at the head-
works. This has had a tremendous effect
on the entire process, from improved
aesthetics, reduced wear and tear on
downstream processes and cleaner bio-
solids for recycling.
North Las Vegas was already produc-
ing an impressively “clean” permeate.
But the Huber fine screens have upped
the ante. Public challenges prove that
the permeate is an order of magnitude
cleaner that what most cities have for
drinking water. The permeate is often
selected over bottled water.
SummaryWastewater treatment plant operat-
ing costs, odiferous gases and end prod-
ucts, could be described as the three legs
that hold up the stool on which the com-
munity relationship sits. Investment in a
single technology can impact all three
“legs” positively.
T.R. Gregg is with Huber Technology. For more information, visit: www.huber-technology.com
Mooresville WWTP dryer unit. North Las Vegas WWTP.
www.waterra.com(CANADA) Waterra Pumps Limited [email protected] • tel: 905.238.5242 (USA) Waterra USA Inc. [email protected] • tel: 360.738.3366
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine32 | November/December 2014
Infiltration
Kingston, sometimes called the “Limestone City,” is
one of Ontario’s oldest cities. The local sewer infra-
structure has kept up with the times but according to
Joe M. Lewis, manager of water and wastewater op-
erations, the City faces the same inflow and infiltration (I&I) chal-
lenges as any municipality. One such problem is ponding water.
“We have an area right at the foot of Beverley Street where
storms will cause ponding of several inches on top of three main-
tenance holes,” said Lewis. “‘Lake Beverley’ can be in place for
several hours, so we knew we had to do something.” Also, near
creek crossings, maintenance holes can be submerged for weeks,
and sometimes beaver activity will result in covered lids.
While pick holes found in most maintenance lids may seem
insignificant, standing water over these holes is a problem. They
are a major source of unwanted inflow and can seriously im-
pact treatment capacity. Studies in Moncton, New Brunswick,
showed that just two 25 mm² holes in a lid covered by 50 mm of
water, will let in about 500 ml of water per second. If standing
water is as deep as 150 mm, which is often the case for “Lake
Beverley,” the rate of inflow doubles and allows 3.6 m³ of water
to flow into the sewer every hour.
Treatment capacity is closely monitored in Kingston. The City
recently installed 14 watertight frame and cover systems on Bev-
erley Street and elsewhere. The Lifespan System®, made by Ham-
ilton Kent, consists of a watertight frame and lid that is easy to
install and eliminates inflow through the top of maintenance holes.
Lewis said the frames and lids might become the new stan-
dard in Kingston. Replacing utility frames and manholes is “low
hanging fruit” compared to more costly sewer line rehabilitation
projects, according to Lewis.
Given the costs of wastewater treatment, addressing unneces-
sary inflow is nearly always a good investment. Only a small per-
centage of utility lids and frames need to be addressed. “As a rule
of thumb, only 10% of the sanitary covers in a system are regular-
ly under standing water,” Hamilton Kent’s Dan Léger points out.
“These are responsible for 80-90% of all the inflow that comes in
through the top of maintenance holes. Replacing these will make a
huge difference in reducing inflow and infiltration.”
Light and watertightLifespan System components are made of a rigid high-per-
formance rubber that is long-lasting and lightweight. The rubber
frame weighs just 25 kg compared to 90 kg for its cast iron coun-
terpart. This lightness and ease of installation, makes it possible
to rehabilitate maintenance holes quickly.
Hybrid Construction Group, Kingston’s contractor for the re-
habilitation work, was able to replace 10 of the original cast iron
frames and covers in just three days. The replacement process
consists of excavation, removal of old concrete leveling rings
and brick and cast iron frame components, and replacement
with Lifespan components. These are first dry-stacked for fit and
slope adjustment, then marked and drilled before being secured
with stainless steel bolts and sealed with butyl sealant. The result
is a permanently watertight cover from the concrete chimney up.
Kingston installs watertight maintenance holes, reduces I&I By Angus W. Stocking
Crews placing the Lifespan frame in Kingston, Ontario.
November/December 2014 | 33 www.esemag.com
Infiltration
I&I reduction is Kingston’s primary reason for installing the
new Lifespan Systems, but Lewis said: “We’ll install more of
these, even in situations with no standing water.” His reasons
include:
• Ergonomics. “Lugging around heavy lids and grade rings is
dangerous. Anything we can do to reduce injuries is worth it
for us.”
• Adaptability. “Lifespan’s tapered grade rings make it
easy to exactly match road surfaces, which is a good thing
given the amount of snowplowing we do. The components
also do well in freeze/thaw regions because they don’t
crack, and don’t allow water into joints.”
• Toughness. “Watertight composite lids are strong and bolt-
ed down. This has two advantages. First, Kingston has a few
lids that routinely pop off in heavy storms, and bolted lids
will stay put, keeping the public safe. Second, bolted down
composite lids should discourage the thieves who some-
times steal iron lids for the few dollars they bring at the re-
cycling yard.”
Angus W. Stocking, L.S., is a licensed land surveyor. For more information, Email: [email protected]
Ponding water forms “Lake Beverley,” which is several
inches deep.
Butyl sealant is applied to form a waterproof cover from
the concrete chimney up.
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine34 | November/December 2014
Something often mentioned by
our municipal clients is how
they have huge capital plans
to deliver but are challenged to
do so. Consultants face the same issues,
impediments and challenges. There are
three groups that must engage and co-
alesce into a single entity in order to
meet delivery expectations: the client,
the consultant and the contractor.
There are parallels in each of our op-
erations that contribute to project deliv-
ery delays. Answering a few questions
should clarify the situation and identify
a way forward: What’s the problem?
Whose problem is it? How can we re-
solve it to speed up project delivery?
What’s the problem?Industry feedback suggests several
reasons for failing to meet project de-
livery expectations. These include: too
few staff; organizational silos; shortage
of experienced engineers and manag-
ers; having unrealistic timelines and
project scopes imposed; setting unre-
alistic timelines for delivery; and lack
of (and application of) rigorous project
controls to ensure success.
Consultants have often achieved lim-
ited success in addressing and resolving
these issues. Looking to other sectors
for parallels to our own situations can
sometimes uncover things we may over-
look, or identify and quantify factors
that can help the consulting and munic-
ipal capital delivery process.
An interesting take on overall proj-
ect delivery is described by Mankins
and Steele in the Spring 2013 Harvard
Business Review OnPoint journal arti-
cle, entitled “Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance.”
They looked at the average perfor-
mance loss in a group of financial com-
panies. Research showed that, on average,
most companies’ strategies delivered only
63% of their expected financial value.
It begged the question of whether they
needed better execution, or better strategy.
The 37% performance loss was attributed
to a group of factors that included:
• 7.5% Inadequate or unavailable re-
sources.
• 5.2% Poorly communicated strategy.
• 4.5% Actions required to execute not
clearly defined.
• 4.1% Unclear accountabilities for exe-
cution.
• 3.7% Organizational silos and culture
blocking execution.
• 3.0% Inadequate performance moni-
toring.
• 3.0% Inadequate consequences of
rewards for failure or success.
• 2.6% Poor senior leadership.
• 1.9% Uncommitted leadership.
• 0.7% Unapproved strategy.
• 0.7% Other obstacles (including
inadequate skills and capabilities).
Each of the above factors contrib-
utes a small percentage to overall per-
formance loss, but, collectively, they
impede the ability of an organization
to effectively deliver projects. Not sur-
prisingly, they are often cited in our
business as reasons behind the ability
to effectively deliver, or not deliver, on
capital programs.
Whose problem is it?The same weaknesses can permeate
public and private sector entities as well,
with the same impacts on programs and
delivery. Being able to achieve a firm
or owner’s business strategies requires a
re-think around how we plan and deliver
work. Key elements related to creating
less complex plans, setting expectations
during planning, forecasting resource re-
quirements in advance, clearly identify-
ing priorities, monitoring performance,
and motivation and development of staff
were all raised by Mankins and Steele,
and are echoed in other sectors.
How can we accelerate municipal project delivery? By Bill De Angelis
Each year, ES&E invites experts and leaders in
environmental consulting to share their opinions, experiences
and values with our readers. We continue to be honoured
every year with erudite responses from some of our leading
consulting engineers. Their opinions are based on many
years of collective experience in maintaining high standards,
while keeping up with the diversity and complexities of
environmental engineering and managerial leadership.
Impediments to project delivery in
the public sector can include: politics,
internal team, approvals processes,
external pressures, contract language,
shifting of risk and procurement. These
can influence a project’s timing, as well
as direction. Political needs sometimes
determine how internal resources (bud-
gets) are allocated, often to the detri-
ment of a particular project.
Beyond the capital program itself,
the needs of various departments, all
vying for a large piece of the same capi-
tal “pie,” can result in delay, deferral or
cancellation of planned projects. Much
of this is outside of the purview of the
project managers and engineering divi-
sions in our clients’ organizations.
Approvals are an area where we see
delays. The approvals environment is
both loosening and tightening for proj-
ect proponents. The Modernization of
Approvals group in the Ontario Ministry
of the Environment (MOE) has moved
towards self-approval of projects, under
the Environmental Compliance Approv-
als (ECA) banner. Similarly, the Munic-
ipal Class Environmental Assessment
Study (MCEA) process is essentially
proponent-driven, with the proponent
(owner) scoping and driving the process.
Beyond MOE and MCEA require-
ments, the sheer number of approvals
from a variety of agencies, public in-
terest groups, municipal departments,
conservation agencies and various min-
istries is increasing. Timelines related to
overall delivery are being both eroded
and extended.
The environmentally conscious and
sensitive public that we work with now
are more questioning than ever. They
want to know what we are doing, why
we are doing it, and what negative (or
positive) environmental consequences
might result from our work. This faction
can and does lobby politicians, either
directly or through the Municipal Class
EA Part ll Order process.
Councils themselves tend to be risk
intolerant. They want certainty around
scope/schedule/budget before approving
projects.
The nature and structure of contracts
and agreements can extend project de-
velopment and delivery. Where they
were once mainly technical in nature,
there is now, by necessity, major input
from legal, financial and purchasing de-
partments. They focus on non-technical
elements of execution, i.e., insurance,
indemnification and allocation of risk.
How can we speed up delivery?There are several keys to successful
delivery that are neither complex nor
mythical. Rather, they are founded on
business principles, inclusion, common
sense and clear goals. They require us
as an industry to work closely with our
clients. For each project or program, we
need: achievable plans, partnering, col-
continued overleaf...
November/December 2014 | 35 www.esemag.com
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine36 | November/December 2014
laboration, communication and progress
tracking.
Most successful projects are realistic
in scope, cost and schedule. Of course,
ongoing rigorous tracking and docu-
mentation of progress must be done.
Otherwise, there will be no baseline
from which to gauge project and indi-
vidual performance versus expectations.
Contract delivery mechanisms can be
adjusted to improve delivery timelines.
Traditional design/bid/build contracts
are used by many municipalities. We
are, however, beginning to see con-
tract approaches that are partly aimed
at hastening delivery. Examples would
include design/build, public-private
partnerships, bundling, and the applica-
tion of pre-approved consultant roster
approaches. What may hasten adoption
of alternate project delivery approaches
is the availability of funding from Infra-
structure Ontario, P3 Canada, and other
provincial and federal agencies.
Service level agreements are being
seen as a means of improving project
delivery. They set out the conditions and
obligations that each party to an agree-
ment (client, engineer, contractor) must
adhere to, and in essence agree to, prior
to project commencement. These agree-
ments establish key performance indi-
cators and metrics against which each
participant is measured. The challenge
is to set realistic metrics.
In the public sector, many internal
entities have a role to fulfill, including:
operations, engineering, planning, pur-
chasing, legal, asset management, risk
management, committee and council.
Particular attention needs to be paid by
technical staff to proactively communi-
cating project concepts, challenges and
mitigation elements to procurement,
legal and risk management groups that
are not normally versed in technical
concepts around design and execution.
Prior notification of pending projects
has been successful in expediting in-
ternal approvals. Setting up an internal
project review panel with representation
from all groups, meeting regularly to
discuss upcoming projects and possible
issues, is one means of improving proj-
ect delivery.
External delays can occur in procure-
ment. The current construction environ-
ment in Ontario is seeing a shortfall in
highly qualified contractors to meet the
capital works demands of municipal-
ities. In recognition of this, municipal
project managers are discussing with
their counterparts the timing of the re-
lease of large capital projects, to try to
ensure strong contractor response.
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Service level agreements are being seen as a means of improving project delivery.
Prior notification of pending projects has been
successful in expediting internal approvals.
November/December 2014 | 37 www.esemag.com
Improving consultant and contrac-
tor selection processes is another way
clients can reduce overall project time-
lines. Prequalification of consultants
and contractors is one means of ensur-
ing a selection of strong teams. Rigorous
evaluations following project comple-
tion will raise the quality of the consul-
tant and contractor pool for future client
assignments.
To help expedite the overall require-
ment to improve on project delivery
timelines and efficiency, Consulting
Engineers of Ontario (CEO) have begun
to engage their members in discussions
on this topic. They have also reached
out to the larger project delivery com-
munity for discussion and input. They
are currently working with Metrolinx
and Infrastructure Ontario to formulate
contract documents that will expedite
project delivery of new infrastructure.
As well, they have initiated discus-
sions with RPWCO (Regional Public
Works Commissioners of Ontario).
CEO are looking to improve procure-
ment processes through a review of:
request for proposal (RFP) structures;
evaluation criteria; alternative procure-
ment models; contract terms and condi-
tions; and consultant performance and
evaluation:
a) RFP Structure Elements• Development of draft RFPs and circu-
lation to key consultants for comments
and suggestions.
• Further development of objective, mea-
surable criteria for proposal evaluation.
• Consultant selection on the basis of a
technical RFP submission, followed by
negotiation of fees within an approved
funding envelope. Also, working in
collaboration to adjust scope, timelines
and payment terms to meet project re-
quirements.
b) Contract Terms and Conditions• Ensuring a balanced risk allocation be-
tween consultants and proponents.
• Reviewing indemnification clauses.
• Insurance types and limits.
• Review of holdback provisions in the
context of the Construction Lien Act.
Ultimately, the entire project deliv-
ery community of client, engineer and
contractor share the same goals. We all
want to deliver high quality engineering
projects at fair prices, in a timely fash-
ion. It is going to be a busy time in the
Ontario market as we accelerate efforts
to replace, upgrade and build new verti-
cal and horizontal infrastructure.
Accelerating project delivery re-
quires the same level of commitment
from all parties, to clarity in scoping,
strong project management and con-
trols, development of internal efficien-
cies, collaboration and partnership, and,
above all, clear communication, strategy
and leadership.
Bill De Angelis, P.Eng., MBA, is Vice President, Associated Engineering.
Email: [email protected]
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Climate change impacts are
being observed in every
region of Canada, with
increased frequency and
intensity of hurricane events in the At-
lantic region, ice storms in Ontario and
Québec, more tornadoes in the Prai-
ries, severe flooding events in Toronto
and southern Alberta, shorter ice road
seasons in the North, and increased in-
tensity and frequency of “Pineapple Ex-
press” extreme precipitation events on
the Pacific coast.
Canadian engineers designing critical
infrastructure are faced with a growing
challenge. We must design, build and
operate infrastructure systems that are
resilient to the environments where they
are intended to operate, while satisfying
our obligation as engineers to protect the
public’s health and safety.
The public often takes for granted that
our systems will function as designed for
the operating environments they were in-
tended for. Meanwhile, changing climate
conditions in Canada are challenging these
systems on an ongoing and growing basis.
These systems can fail, with the potential
for economic disruption and loss of life.
The engineering profession must
identify ways to address our evolving
understanding of the hazards presented
by a shifting climate. We must also pro-
vide tools to professional engineering
practitioners to ensure safe and reliable
infrastructure system designs.
Issues with existing codes and standards
Most of the infrastructure that exists
today was designed using values derived
from historical climate data. This prac-
tice is based upon the premise that the
average and extreme conditions of past
decades will also hold throughout the
decades to come.
As long as our climate remains stable,
defining the “envelope” for a design’s
operating environment using historical
climate data, is an approach that has
worked reasonably well. Given a sta-
ble, consistent climate, we could design
for known conditions over an expected
service life. We could be confident that
our design would be resilient enough to
function properly in that intended oper-
ating environment. Engineers have ap-
plied this approach because it allowed
consideration of climate design values
for flooding, rainfall, temperature and
others, over different return periods and
historical extremes for a given location.
But, how valid can this approach be
when our climate begins to shift and
move away from these historical ranges?
Could we be leaving unattended risk “on
the table” within the gap between his-
torical and future climate conditions?
If the vast majority of our engineering
codes and standards do not yet include
consideration of a shifting climate that
no longer adheres to historical patterns,
then who must manage the risks induced
by this wider range of conditions?
The answer is professional engineers.
Engineers Canada, the national organiza-
tion representing regulatory associations
that license the engineering profession
across Canada, recognize that effects of a
changing climate will require infrastruc-
Consultants must respond to climate change impacts on infrastructure design By Roger Rempel and Joel Nodelman
Climate resilient systems training.
November/December 2014 | 39 www.esemag.com
ture designs to be revisited to improve
safety and protection for Canadians.
Engineers Canada worked with Nat-
ural Resources Canada to develop part-
nerships with municipal and provincial
government owners of public infrastruc-
ture. The Public Infrastructure Engineer-
ing Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC)
and a best practices framework for de-
tailed assessment of climate vulnerabil-
ity of public infrastructure, known as the
PIEVC Protocol, were both established.
The PIEVC Protocol has been applied
to over 25 public infrastructure projects
across Canada and has been adapted for
use in international applications by other
governments. Results from these studies
have been categorized by type of infra-
structure in a database of climate-related
infrastructure vulnerabilities, maintained
by Engineers Canada. This database will
be used for the review and adjustment
processes for infrastructure codes, stan-
dards and related instruments.
Given that reviewing and revising
these codes is a time-consuming pro-
cess, can the engineering profession wait
until code revisions are completed before
tackling the problem of climate change
impacts on engineering design?
The legal profession is starting to
weigh in on this question:
“…given knowledge of climate change effects in a geographic area as a
result of the proliferation of climate-re-lated information and projection mod-els, if the “standard practice” at the time of designing a specific type of infra-structure project is to ignore potential
climate-change effects (despite widely available evidence), the standard prac-tice itself may be negligent. Adhering to a deficient standard would be a breach of a design professional’s standard of care to an injured person.” Patricia
Koval, Climate Change Risk: Is Liabil-ity Lurking For Professional Engineers?Engineering Dimensions, PEO 2013.
From the perspective of Engineers
Canada and the legal community, we
cannot wait to act. We have a significant
understanding now of both the probable
effects of climate change and its im-
pacts on various infrastructure sectors.
We know many Canadian regions will
likely face increased intensity and fre-
quencies in precipitation, in addition to
other extreme events. We also know that
permafrost degradation will accelerate
in the north.
It follows that, if infrastructure is not
adapted to be resilient in the face of new
conditions imposed by climate change,
continued overleaf...
It follows that, if
infrastructure is not adapted
to be resilient in the face of
new conditions imposed by climate change, then
property damage and
threats to public safety
are likely to occur.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine40 | November/December 2014
then property damage and threats to pub-
lic safety are likely to occur. Engineers
Canada’s position is that their profes-
sional code of ethics requires engineers
to be involved in addressing the impacts
of changing climate on infrastructure
design and operations because it affects
public safety and the public interest.
Engineers, directors and asset man-
agers also face the reality of increasing
legal actions for alleged actions or omis-
sions, with all of these cases related to
climate change in some measure.
Integrating climate change vulnerability assessment
As applied scientists, engineers al-
ready know how to design in situations
where there is uncertainty. Engineering
builds upon assumptions, which are
themselves vulnerable to uncertainties.
Further, the modelling and assessment
of uncertainty is unavoidable in any
decision made during the planning and
design of an engineering system.
The projected future operating en-
vironment conditions resulting from
climate change also bring uncertainties.
Some projected changes are reported
with high certainty; for other parameters,
the projections are less confident. This
need not hold you back from assessing
your designs for climate vulnerabilities
that could result in damage, disruption
and community impacts.
Just as a process engineer conducts a
hazards and operability analysis (HAZOP)
on an industrial process design, infra-
structure designers should include a cli-
mate vulnerability assessment in their
design process. This should focus spe-
cifically on the impacts of projected cli-
mate change and future severe weather
events.
A number of frameworks and tools
have been established for this purpose,
with some tailored to assess requirements
for specific infrastructure categories such
as transportation networks, water re-
sources and others. One such tool is the
PIEVC Protocol (www.PIEVC.ca).
These climate vulnerability assess-
ments are important. First, they identify
the nature and severity of climate risks
to infrastructure components. With this
knowledge, the engineer can identify
areas that are the most vulnerable to cli-
mate. The range of vulnerabilities can
then be prioritized based upon perfor-
mance criteria that are critical for the
infrastructure and the community that
it serves. Prioritization allows for a
systematic and targeted risk-reduction
approach. This provides infrastructure
asset owners with the understanding
they need to make adaptations to im-
prove climate resiliency for their assets.
Climate vulnerability assessment,
when applied using an established frame-
work such as PIEVC, provides a struc-
tured, documented approach. This not
only informs adjustments in design, op-
erations and maintenance, but provides
the structured evidence of due diligence
that climate impacts were considered and
assessed in the design process.
A current lack of engineering codes
and standards incorporating climate
change will likely not excuse the en-
gineer from liabilities from reasonably
foreseeable impacts of climate change
on infrastructure designs. In conduct-
ing a climate vulnerability assessment
on their designs, professional engineers
not only protect the public interest and
the public’s safety, they can also limit
their exposure to legal liabilities related
to the effects of climate change on in-
frastructure.
ConclusionThe engineering profession has
thrived because of its ability to respond
with solutions for evolving issues. As
leaders in innovation, engineers natu-
rally serve as agents of technical ad-
vancement and change. Climate change
is simply another in a long line of chal-
lenges that continue to test the profes-
sion. We have been successful in the
past because of our technical training,
combined with our reputation for inno-
vation and logical problem solving. Cli-
mate change is not an issue to be feared
and avoided; it is a challenge to meet
head-on in the finest traditions of our
profession.
Roger Rempel, FEC, P.Eng., is with Stantec Consulting Inc. Joel
Nodelman, P.Eng., is with Nodelcorp Consulting Inc. They are faculty instructors for Climate Resilient
Systems Training. Email: [email protected],
November/December 2014 | 41 www.esemag.com
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Climate change is not
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finest traditions of
our profession.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine42 | November/December 2014
Those of us in the consulting
workplace of the early 1990s,
before widespread access to
the Internet and email, will
have a sense of how fundamentally our
industry will be affected by the coming
biological revolution. Over the next de-
cade the environmental consulting in-
dustry will be transformed by advances
in the biological sciences. These will
be driven by the torrent of inexpensive
genomic information and applications
that will become available as a result of
plummeting sequencing costs and ad-
vanced information technologies.
Genomic tools will deepen our under-
standing of the effects of toxics, biodiver-
sity, ecological trends, and will cut the
costs of environmental monitoring. Just
as Internet access today is an essential
element of environmental consulting, in
a decade or so it will be nearly unimag-
inable to undertake environmental analy-
sis without reference to genome sciences.
If the 20th century was that of the com-
puter, the 21st century will be that of bi-
ology.
Genomics is the study of the com-
plete genome of an organism, (i.e., in-
formation encoded in the DNA), as well
as proteomics (the study of the proteins
encoded by a genome), metabolomics
(the study of the metabolite pool), bio-
informatics (information technology to
support genomic analyses) and related
areas of research (collectively known as
genome sciences). These technologies
are used to understand the genetic blue-
print of an organism and how it interacts
with the environment.
Advances in DNA technologyMutually reinforcing advances in
informatics and sequencing methods
have resulted in paradigm shifting
changes in the accessibility of genomic
technologies to researchers. Every two
minutes, the Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute sequences as many base pairs
as all researchers worldwide completed
from 1982 to 1987. Sequencing the first
human genome cost approximately $300
million to complete by 2000. In 2007,
James Watson’s genome was sequenced
for approximately $1 million. Now, in
2014, estimates are closer to $5,000, and
the “$1000 genome” is in sight.
Figure 1, produced by the National
Human Genome Research Institute,
illustrates the dramatic reduction in
the costs associated with sequencing a
human sized genome. The white line
represents Moore’s law, the doubling
of computer instructions per second per
dollar every 18 months. The blue line in-
dicates the cost of sequencing a human
sized genome over time.
The majority of effort in the genomic
sciences is directed toward health-re-
lated research. However, these advances
have led to increased applications in
other sectors, including environmental
management and risk assessment.
Environmental genomics is the appli-
cation of genomics-based approaches to
address environmental issues and prob-
lems, such as:
• Advancing aquatic, terrestrial, and
wildlife toxicology (toxicogenom-
ics), which is enhancing environmen-
tal risk assessment, risk management,
hazard identification, and environ-
mental effects monitoring.
• Supporting wildlife management
through the use of genetic data in
the research, decision-making, and
enforcement (wildlife conservation
genetics, wildlife disease diagnostics,
wildlife forensics).
• Developing biotechnology solutions
to potentially realize environmental
goals, including the use of biofuels,
bioremediation of contaminated sites,
and carbon sequestration.
The application of genome sciences to
environmental toxicology is particularly
promising for those chemicals or com-
plex mixtures that are persistently dis-
charged into both terrestrial and aquatic
environments at low concentrations. Re-
cent technological advances now make
it possible to develop molecular profiles
The evolution of environmental consulting By Brian Yates
Figure 1. Dramatic drops in genome sequencing costs.
November/December 2014 | 43 www.esemag.com
to identify the effects of chemical sub-
stances on living organisms, or in the
environment. Subsequently, knowledge
gained on gene identification, structure
and expression can be applied to envi-
ronmental protection and management.
ToxicogenomicsToxicogenomics identifies the ac-
tivity of a particular toxin or chemical
substance on living tissue, based on a
profile of the known effects of the sub-
stance on genetic material. Many of the
standard toxicological approaches to
assessing potential deleteriousness of
chemicals on aquatic organisms, rely on
whole-animal responses (e.g., mortality,
reproduction, growth), and associated
endpoints (e.g., lethal concentrations).
While these methods have worked
well for identifying chemicals of con-
cern, they are insufficient for elucidating
the pathways of chemical toxicity and
a broad spectrum of sub-lethal effects.
The time required to undertake new test-
ing will be prohibitive, without innova-
tions in testing methods. Genomic tools
offer a high throughput and lower cost
opportunity to address the information
needs of regulators and risk assessors.
International efforts to sequence the
genomes of a range of key species will
enable cross species comparisons of the
impact of chemicals and other environ-
mental stressors. The Daphnia Genom-
ics Consortium and the International
Collaboration to Sequence the Atlantic
Salmon Genome (ICSASG) are exam-
ples of such efforts.
Toxicogenomics offers the ability
to increase the sensitivity of analytical
tools and determine effects at the level
of gene and protein expression. It has
great potential for application to risk as-
sessment and toxicology. Potential toxi-
cogenomics applications include:
• Determining the effect of environ-
mental stressors on organisms and
ecosystems, and predicting the effect
of environmental changes.
• Monitoring the environment, emerg-
ing chemicals of concern and indus-
trial effluents to ensure compliance
with regulatory requirements (e.g.,
toxins are within thresholds). Also,
identifying potential new environ-
mental stressors through integration
with environmental effects monitor-
ing programs.
Genomics based monitoring can aug-
ment existing whole animal tests with
information related to sub lethal effects
that might impact on an organism’s abil-
ity to survive in the long term (e.g. its
ability to eat, escape predators or fight
infection. These include:
• Evaluating synergistic and cumula-
tive effects of pollutants on organ-
isms and within the environment.
• Moving from time-consuming whole
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If the 20th century
was that of the computer,
the 21st century will be
that of biology.
animal to in-vitro testing to evaluate
changes in biologic processes.
• Investigating how emergent chem-
icals and materials (e.g., nanotech-
nology byproducts) may influence
animals, plants and the environment.
Nanotechnology, for example, en-
compasses many techniques used to
manipulate materials at the scale of
atoms and molecules. Substances at
this scale are more reactive and nox-
ious than at the micro- or macro-scale.
Environmental microbiologyEnvironmental microbiology can sup-
port major advances in evaluating and
applying individual micro-organisms and
complex microbial communities to exist-
ing environmental issues. This includes:
• Improving the remediation and res-
toration of contaminated land and
ocean sites (e.g., discarded munitions
on the ocean floor).
• Developing “green chemistry” (in-
volving metabolic modeling and de-
velopment of microbial expression
systems) for industrial processes, to
reduce and eliminate harmful emis-
sions and byproducts from conven-
tional chemical processing.
• Developing microbial processes that
can convert industrial waste, such as
that from forestry, pulp and paper or
food processing, fisheries and agri-
culture, into biofuels.
BiodiversityGenome sciences could be applied to
various aspects of ecosystem monitor-
ing, conservation and biodiversity man-
agement, including:
• Genomic mapping of wild popula-
tions of land and water-based ani-
mals, resulting in the production of
DNA chips.
• Use in wildlife forensics to support con-
servation enforcement, including appli-
cations to trade in endangered species.
• Incorporating genomics data into in-
dicators of ecosystem health.
• Measuring at the genomic level the
stress in a population resulting from
exposure to contaminants or other en-
vironmental stresses such as climate
change.
• Identifying biomarkers associated
with resistance and adaptation to en-
vironmental stressors such as climate
change.
• Supporting ecosystem restoration.
Bio-prospectingGenome sciences can potentially be
applied to bio-prospecting, including
the use of environmental microbiology
to develop genomic approaches for dis-
covery of novel enzymes and bioactive
microbial products found in all envi-
ronments. This includes such extremes
as ocean hot vents and deep in-glacier
ice. It can also provide tools to identify
active compounds in industrial waste,
such as pulp and paper effluent, or waste
products, or in endemic flora, algae and
fungi.
A path forwardEnvironmental genomics research is
underway in academic institutions, gov-
ernment labs, and private companies. It
has reached a “tipping point” globally
where these advances will allow the fea-
sible integration of genome sciences with
more traditional tools.
What does this mean for the environ-
mental consulting industry? Genomic
sciences will disperse from university
and government research institutions into
real-world applications. We will need to
invest and prepare ourselves to integrate
them into our work, if we want to create
more opportunities for our clients and
ourselves.
Taking steps now to modernize in-
dustry’s approaches to risk assessment,
toxicology and conservation will pay
long-term dividends in efficiency and
cost-effectiveness. It will also yield ben-
efits associated with more robust under-
standing of the underlying molecular
biology of maintaining healthy ecosys-
tems. We should form more partnerships
with academia and government to ensure
genomic tools are optimized for use in the
private sector.
In the coming years, genomics tools
will become as ubiquitous to environ-
mental consultants as information tech-
nology is today, and just as essential to
how we do our work.
Brian Yates is Vice President, Impact Assessment & Community
Engagement, SNC-Lavalin.Email: [email protected]
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine44 | November/December 2014
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November/December 2014 | 45 www.esemag.com
Best-selling author Seth Godin
argues that the social con-
tract between employers and
their employees has changed
(Godin, 2010). The new contract re-
wards talent, creativity and art more
than it rewards obedience.
The old social contract was paternal.
The concept of loyalty made sense then
because employers took care of life-
time workers and work was more rou-
tine (Williams R. B., 2011). This social
contract failed when “leaders started
to confuse profits with purpose, taking
the low road to short-term gains at the
expense of employees, customers, and
ultimately, investors.”
What these approaches miss, is that
loyalty is still what drives financial suc-
cess because knowledge and innovation
flourish when there are established net-
works of mutually beneficial relation-
ships within a company.
Today’s social contract is a partner-
ship. R. B. Williams argues in his arti-
cle “Is Loyalty Dead?” that “employees
expect to be treated fairly, to deliver
professionally, and to have meaningful,
challenging work. In return, employees
owe the organization their willingness
to participate in business growth, idea
development, customer service and or-
ganizational transformation.”
This change in the social contract
has had a deep impact on engineering
consulting firms. Who they employ and
what projects they have carried out, de-
termines what new work they can win.
What they earn depends on how many
of their employees’ hours they can sell
and for what price.
The challenge faced by consulting
firms is how to match staffing levels to
the demand for services. If the demand
for services is cyclic, then firms may
match the demand by adjusting staffing
levels up and down. In a cost-sensitive
market, firms may also try to maximize
the hours that staff can be billed for.
They may also pare back the staff that
cannot be charged directly to the client
but provide important administrative
services.
This approach means knowledge
workers now spend up to 41% of their
time on low value tasks (Birkinshaw &
Cohen, September 2013). This leaves
little time for management and inno-
vation and can cause staff to leave the
firm, taking with them their knowledge
and personal networks.
Many firms have reversed this trend
by identifying and rewarding staff that
invest their personal knowledge into
their work. They learned that it is more
cost-effective to maximize the time
these staff spend doing high value tasks
by delegating low value tasks to lower
paid staff. When it is time to reduce staff
because of market conditions, they re-
tain their “linchpins” and cut their com-
modity workers.
This makes employees partners be-
cause they can flourish in profitable,
well run and stable companies. They
know they cannot be complacent be-
cause their satisfaction stems from
doing creative and profitable work. This
means the employee must be as adapt-
able as the employer to changes in the
market if both are to succeed.
The employer cannot afford to retain
staff whose skills do not keep pace with
their salary. With the change in the so-
cial contract to a partnership, it is no lon-
ger solely the employer’s responsibility
to create a career path. The employee
must anticipate what is needed to com-
pete and acquire this knowledge before
it is required.
Personal knowledge management
(PKM) is a collection of processes that
a person uses to gather, classify, store,
search, retrieve and share knowledge
in their daily activities. These are the
processes by which we make sense of
Personal knowledge management is a win/win concept for consulting firms By Pat Coleman
continued overleaf...
w
The employee must
anticipate what is needed
to compete and acquire
this knowledge before
it is required.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine46 | November/December 2014
information, observations and ideas
(Glasbeek, 2013). It is a “bottom up” ap-
proach to building knowledge in a com-
pany that developed in an economy where
individual workers need to be responsible
for their own growth and learning.
PKM is in contrast to knowledge
management (KM) which is a “top
down” corporate system. The two sys-
tems need to work in partnership so that
both employee and employer earn a re-
turn when they invest their knowledge
capital.
The risk with the end of single career
and lifetime employment, is that some
individuals will not share their knowl-
edge if they feel their jobs are threat-
ened. Unless an organization rewards
knowledge sharing, their culture will be
poisoned by passive knowledge hoard-
ing, hindering an organization’s ability
to compete.
David Shenk coined the phrase “data
smog,” to refer to the idea that too much
information can create a barrier in our
lives (Association of College and Re-
search Libraries, 2014). This data smog
is produced by the amount of informa-
tion, the speed at which it comes to us
from all directions, the need to make fast
decisions, and the feeling of anxiety that
we are making decisions without having
all the information we need.
Today, a typical person processes
over six times the information they did
20 years ago. Syndromes such as “tech-
nostress” and “attention deficit office be-
haviour,” are common in the workplace.
Many workers describe their experience
as being constantly “fire fighting.” They
live in a permanent state of crisis, with-
out any spare capacity, or margin of
error. The danger is that in this environ-
ment no one has time or the inclination
to acquire or share knowledge.
An equally dangerous outcome of
information overload is decision paral-
ysis. More uncertainty demands more
knowledge, more knowledge increases
complexity, more complexity demands
more abstraction, more abstraction in-
creases uncertainty (Gorman & Pau-
leen, 2011). The default position, unless
altered by market forces, is to “just do
what we did before.” This reduces what
we do to a commodity and market forces
ensure that there will always be some-
one somewhere who can do it cheaper.
To navigate through this smog, we
need to acquire a new set of competen-
cies to filter and vet information. Infor-
mation Literacy Competency Standards
for Higher Education defines informa-
tion literacy as follows:
“Information literacy is a set of abil-
ities requiring individuals to ‘recognize
when information is needed and have
the ability to locate, evaluate and use
effectively the needed information.’
It is also increasingly important in the
contemporary environment of rapid
technological change and proliferating
information resources. Because of the
escalating complexity of this environ-
ment, individuals are faced with diverse,
abundant information choices in their
academic studies, in the workplace and
in their personal lives.
“Information literacy forms the basis
for lifelong learning. It is common to all
disciplines, to all learning environments,
and to all levels of education. It enables
learners to master content and extend
their investigations, become more
self-directed, and assume greater control
over their own learning. An information
literate individual is able to:
• Determine the extent of information
needed.
• Access the needed information effec-
tively and efficiently.
• Evaluate information and its sources
critically.
• Incorporate selected information into
one’s knowledge base.
• Use information effectively to ac-
complish a specific purpose.
• Understand the economic, legal, and
social issues surrounding the use of
information, and access and use in-
formation ethically and legally.” (As-
sociation of College and Research
Libraries, 2014)
It is a dangerous mistake to con-
fuse information with knowledge, and
knowledge with wisdom.
Information is simply data. Once refined
and processed, it becomes knowledge.
With experience, humility and reflection,
knowledge morphs into wisdom.
Knowledge is “a fluid mix of framed
experience, values, contextual informa-
tion, and expert insight that provides a
framework for evaluating and incor-
porating new experiences and infor-
mation,” (Gorman & Pauleen, 2011).
Personal knowledge only starts to be-
come valuable to an individual and their
employer when it results in a new skill,
perspective or competency.
One characteristic of a wise person
is their ability to reflect on what they
know. This is essential if a person is to
manage what they know (Gorman &
Pauleen, 2011). Such a person is able to:
• Acknowledge the ambiguous, frag-
mented and contested nature of
knowledge but does not prevent a de-
termination of the understood “facts”
of the matter.
• Acknowledge that there are multiple
perspectives to any phenomenon,
each with their own vocabularies,
theories and frames.
• Understand as far as possible one’s
own subject position individually and
as a member of a community of prac-
tice, and that this will influence the
perception of the object.
This type of wisdom cannot be ob-
tained by sitting in an office with the
door closed. It can only be obtained by
seeking it. For this reason, a personal
knowledge management strategy is built
on five components:
1. A strategy to anticipate, explore, find,
connect, learn and act when acquiring
knowledge.
2. A plan to identify what has to be
learned and to obtain this learning to
remain relevant in the job market.
3. The development of strong communi-
cation and interpersonal skills to cre-
ate productive networks with others.
4. The acquisition of skills to use tech-
nology to acquire, manage and share
knowledge.
5. The ability to reflect and forecast
where your limited resources need to
be focused.
The social networking side of PKM
is critical. It is important that an indi-
vidual creates networks. It is only when
we know people that we will be able
to scan/reinvent and vet/filter what we
learn. A person who sits in their office
and reads about sludge dryers will never
be as knowledgeable as someone who
has commissioned or operated a dryer.
Knowledge is just information unless it
is grounded in experience.
We intuitively recognise this. Most of
us would place more value on advice on
parenting teenagers from someone with
adult children than from someone whose
children were still toddlers. It requires
a critical thinker to discern reliability of
an information source.
A critical thinker is able to: analyze
cause and effect; classify and sequence;
compare and contrast; infer; evaluate;
observe; predict; and rationalize. A crit-
ical thinker must remain open-minded,
well-informed, logical, and clarifica-
tion-seeking. There is a critical balance
between knowing and learning as one
leads to asking the right question and
the other to receiving the correct answer
(MindTools, 2014).
The three things that keep a person
November/December 2014 | 47 www.esemag.com
Figure 1: Impact of PKM on the employer.
continued overleaf...
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine48 | November/December 2014
on the right path to their knowledge goal
are the people they know (relationships
and networks), related information (in-
formation), and the tools/skills to man-
age their efforts (technology). For each
goal, there will be a different balance be-
tween the three. However, all will play a
role. James Dellow (Dellow, 2003) calls
this the Personal Knowledge Mountain.
He argues that when a person climbs
a mountain, they rely on their team mem-
bers, their knowledge and their equip-
ment. The value of this analogy is to
remind us what is important. We build
our personal knowledge in a community
that should extend past the borders of our
employer and reach those who will chal-
lenge our complacency. We use technol-
ogy to grow the tendrils of our network
and to manage all that we gather.
To fully understand the importance
of staff assuming responsibility for their
knowledge management, let us con-
sider the key factors that measure the
“smartness” of an organization. These
are: awareness of external information;
dissemination of knowledge internally;
effective decision hierarchy; organiza-
tional focus; and continuous innovation
(Cheong & Tsui, 2011).
An employee’s efforts to build their
own personal knowledge can have a
positive impact on each of these factors
(Figure 1).
Employees gather information from
external sources through their personal
networks. This information can be used
by their employer to better market to and
serve clients. Individuals vet and pack-
age information into a form that can be
fed more effectively through the organi-
zation via formal and informal networks.
When individuals understand what is
at the core of their employer’s business,
they can align their own information
management to strengthen the compa-
ny’s performance. When a company’s
employees are continuously learning,
this can create pockets of intense cre-
ativity and innovation within the organi-
zation that will enhance the company’s
bottom line.
Engineering consultants are feeling
pressure from three areas. Management
consultants argue they are better planners
and program managers; contractors argue
they are better designers; and software
companies argue they can automate the
design process. The danger is that clients
come to view the core of what is left as
a commodity, one that can be executed
cheaper and equally as well offshore.
To maintain their competitive edge,
consultants must retain knowledge
within their organization. Employers
must reward and facilitate bottom-up
knowledge management. They need to
retain those who share knowledge and
build the company’s agility and creativ-
ity. This will enable firms to be competi-
tive in a market driven by both price and
innovation.
Patrick Coleman, P.Eng., is with Black & Veatch.Email: [email protected]
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November/December 2014 | 49 www.esemag.com
Past, present and future of the environmental service industry By Kurt Hansene
In 1969, the United States enacted
its federal Clean Air and Water
Acts. Alberta did the same in 1971,
as did many other Canadian juris-
dictions, after pollution caught signifi-
cant public attention during the 1960s.
Shortly after, a few astute engineer-
ing consulting companies across Canada
diversified and augmented their business
with an environmental division. They
started the service with internal exper-
tise from the engineering disciplines of
sanitary, geotechnical and water resource
engineering. Early on, they recognized
that non-engineering expertise was re-
quired. Hydrogeologists, soil, vegetation
and atmospheric scientists were needed
for the environmental impact sciences of
groundwater contamination, mined land
reclamation and air quality assessment. It
was a frontier science back then.
In the 1980s, hazardous and mu-
nicipal waste, landfill and incineration
management legislation became com-
mon. Legislation regarding waste min-
imization and corporate due diligence
was introduced during the 1990s. Then,
a few Canadian jurisdictions required
“third party verification” of corpo-
rately filed compliance reports regard-
ing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)
and reductions. Other peripheral service
needs of periodic “third-party auditing”
of corporate environmental management
systems (i.e., emission and ambient air
quality monitoring, company sustain-
ability programs and goals, waste man-
agement) have evolved.
These legislative requirements have
paved the way for the rapidly growing
environmental service industry that has
diversified to the point of no longer
being a service that engineering com-
panies excel in providing. Thousands of
Canadian service companies now offer
environmental assistance.
Current business fabricThe current environmental service
industry falls mainly into the follow-
ing categories: proposed new industrial
project development; existing operating
industrial facilities; and government and
institutions.
The first category is the most signifi-
cant for the environmental service field.
Industrial clients simply do not have the
in-house expertise and human resources
to tackle this for new projects. It re-
quires such a variety of environmental
expertise that they cannot justify hiring
their own full time employees. The ser-
vice industry has all of the specialists,
and is up to date with regulatory require-
ments and permitting strategies.
The second business category is the
focus of many small and medium-sized
environmental service companies that
wish to only focus on specific services,
such as:
• Air, water and soil sample collection,
physical and chemical analyses, brief
data interpretation and regulatory com-
pliance report submissions.
• Baseline monitoring and reporting
(e.g., groundwater quality in potential
future coal bed methane formations).
• Environmental auditing of regulatory
reporting compliance, environmental
management systems, sustainability an-
nual reports, GHG emission statement
verification, etc.
• Waste inventorying and dispositions
and annual regulatory reporting.
• Contaminated site cleanup, remediation
and reclamation.
The third business category is gov-
ernment and institutional assistance.
While the travel may appeal to some,
it is highly variable, requires long lead
time and is not suited for those that wish
to stay local.
The futureThe main driver of future service
requirements will be new or revised
Legislative requirements
have paved the way for
the rapidly growing
environmental service
industry that has
diversified.
continued overleaf...
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine50 | November/December 2014
regulatory requirements. For environ-
mental assessment and contaminated
site cleanup, demand is directly related
to the number of industry-proposed new
or expanded facilities that are subject to
mandatory environmental assessment
submission.
Market fluctuations will exist for in-
dustrial facility decommissioning, but
will be stable in western Canada with
its thousands of oil and gas well pro-
duction sites. Future legislative changes
could arbitrarily increase or decrease
demand. For example, the demand for en-
vironmental assessment services dropped
a couple of years ago due to revisions of
the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. This meant fewer types of project de-
velopments required mandatory environ-
mental assessment, or less comprehensive
assessment.
Increased market demands are ex-
pected in certain sectors. For example,
Alberta introduced the development of
airsheds for regional air quality monitor-
ing during the mid-1990s. About 10 of
them have since been established with
a variety of air quality monitoring and
data collection systems.
Recent studies by the Canadian Coun-
cil of Ministers of the Environment
suggest that other provinces may move
towards coordinated airshed monitoring,
compared to fragmented air quality mon-
itoring by individual permit holders and
provincial environmental departments.
Another example is the recently
established Alberta Environmental
Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting
Agency. It is tasked with establishing
a network of stations and systems in
northern Alberta to monitor air, water,
soil, etc. Specialist environmental con-
tractors will be required for these new
monitoring developments and similar
demands may evolve in other provinces.
The need for baseline groundwater
quality monitoring occurred about 10
years ago because of coal bed methane
developments. Future oil shale fracking
developments will increase the need
even more.
A new market for verification and
inventorying of GHG emission compli-
ance and baseline reports has developed
in Alberta and British Columbia over
the last 10 years. Legislation requires
that lead verifiers be either a registered
professional engineer or registered char-
tered accountant. Demand may increase
if legislation lowers the facility emission
threshold for mandatory reporting, or if
other provinces introduce GHG emis-
sion control legislation.
However, the market may also evapo-
rate should any province transition into a
flat type carbon tax on energy purchases.
A rapidly growing engineering service
demand will occur should the Federal
government introduce a direct carbon tax
or some indirect equivalent, which sets a
clear future benchmark for energy users/
wasters. Engineers with specialized skills
in energy efficiency gains such as waste
heat use, building insulation or renewable
energy, will be in great demand.
November/December 2014 | 51 www.esemag.com
A small market for the development
and annual internal corporate reporting
of sustainability has developed during
the past 20 years. It has been created
by large corporations and public insti-
tutions that feel compelled to report to
their shareholders about their environ-
mental and sustainable resource use per-
formance. This market may grow, with
new legislative requirements for facil-
ities or commercial operations that are
not currently required to report anything
annually under a permit, or the Canadian
National Pollutant Release Inventory
(NPRI) requirements.
Required skills and business strategies
Engineers and other scientists (and
their employers) that wish to succeed in
the environmental service market have
to consider the following educational re-
quirements and human qualities:
• Strong project management skills such
as efficiently using Microsoft Project,
or equivalent, software to manage proj-
ect task schedule and budget revisions.
• Strong applied science skills in fluid
dynamics, chemistry, biology, earth
sciences and statistics, including spe-
cialty software for predictive modelling
of air, surface water and groundwater
quality. Database software skills also
matter when it comes to analyzing
collected environmental baseline field
data. Geomatic software skills are use-
ful, although this task is usually dele-
gated to a project team specialist.
• A personal engineering skill to “level
down” intricate engineering project de-
tails to the level of the simple project
facts required by a variety of environ-
mental scientists.
• A personal knack for business devel-
opment. Project work will not come
in continuously unless one makes it
a habit to meet with existing and po-
tential clients. In today’s Internet and
electronic newsletter world, bid lists
are a relic of the past. You have to seek
out prospective clients and convince
them that your company is qualified
to service the specific client needs.
SummaryThe environmental service industry
has grown and matured tremendously
over the past 40 years. It is no longer
a service that is exclusively offered by
consulting engineering companies. Nu-
merous other specialist service compa-
nies have entered and secured a good
portion of the market. The market will
grow in the future depending on new
legislative requirements and ongoing
steady economic activity.
Engineers, with the right skills, will
always be required in this service sec-
tor because of their project management
and applied science skills.
Kurt Hansen, M.Sc., P. Eng., is an environmental consultant assisting
industry, government and institutional clients across Canada and overseas.
Email: [email protected]
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine52 | November/December 2014
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The Steel Tank Institute (STI)
recently published SP131,
“Standard for inspection, repair and modification of
shop-fabricated underground tanks for storage of flammable and combustible liquids.”
SP131 was developed in response
to requests from several agencies, re-
sponsible for ensuring the safety of the
public and the environment from spills
of hazardous flammable and combust-
ible liquids. STI standards are widely
recognized in the steel tank fabrica-
tion industry and many regulations and
agencies reference them directly in
their rules.
Most existing steel underground
storage tanks are constructed to STI
standards, so agencies came to STI
for development of SP131. A group of
regulators, tank manufacturers, con-
tractors, and other stakeholders were
invited to form a committee to develop
SP131. They spent over a year meeting,
drafting, and re-drafting the document,
ensuring it fairly addresses the needs
and concerns of agencies, regulators,
and the industry.
The scope of SP131 states that: “This standard covers the inspection, repair, and modification of an atmos-
pheric-type, shop-fabricated, carbon and/or stainless steel underground storage tank. It applies to tanks storing stable liquids at atmospheric pressure. It covers tanks built to a nationally recognized standard for underground storage tanks... This standard applies to tanks that are installed and also to tanks that have been temporarily removed to achieve a repair...”
SP 131 covers all steel underground
tanks built in accordance with a U.S.
national standard. Tanks built to the
Underwriters’ Laboratories of Canada
standards are covered in its scope. Ac-
ceptance of the standard is dependent on
local regulations.
For more information, visit www.steeltank.com
New STI standard for underground steel tanks
A diverse range of case histories and new
developments is reviewed in ES&E’s
semi-annual look at tanks, containment
systems and spill management.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine52 | November/December 2014
• Meeting Federal (E2), Provincial, Regulations• Site Emergency Preparedness & Response Plans• Industry Specific Standards, ISO 14000, International
Cyanide Management Code, Aboriginal Agreements
• Hands on Chemical Testing & Evaluation of Chemicals,Reagents, Process and Waste streams as well as MixedSpilled Substances
• Best Management Practices, Why & When to Patch,Over-pack or Transfer for transport, product recovery orwaste disposal
• Deal with Time Critical Issues and Hierarchy of Event• Discharges >1,000 gallons per minute in all terrain• Laboratory size to train derailment, pipeline size spills, all-terrain• Selecting conditions, flow rates, wind conditions, recovery• Improvise Countermeasures to reduce cost & contamination• Boat & Boom Deployment in river, open water
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine54 | November/December 2014
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Harvest Power’s Energy Gar-
den in London, Ontario
turns organic materials into
clean, renewable energy
and fertilizers. Through advanced di-
gestion technology, naturally-occurring
micro-organisms produce renewable
biogas energy from food scraps, grease,
and other organic waste materials. The
remaining digestate is turned into or-
ganic fertilizer granules.
The Energy From Waste facility
uses a wet anaerobic digestion technol-
ogy to turn 65,000 tonnes of mixed or-
ganic materials into 2.85 megawatts per
hour of electricity and 5,200 tonnes of
fertilizers. This cost-effective process-
ing option helps the community lower
costs, meet recycling targets, provide
renewable energy and return nutrients
to local farms and fields.
Greatario Engineered Storage Sys-
tems designed and constructed the
anaerobic digester and other process
tanks. Having the technology to pro-
vide various types of storage tanks with
specific roof applications to handle the
different stages of the digestion process
was important to Harvest Power. Great-
ario manufactured and built nine tanks
utilized at Harvest’s Energy Garden
in London. In the design stage, Har-
vest anticipated 20-25 waste delivery
trucks per week, or 120,000 tonnes of
waste, would be processed each year.
Construction of multiple tanks began in
2011.
Reception and storage tanksOrganic materials entering the sys-
tem are ground up and de-contaminat-
ed. They are then separated into regu-
lar organics (food waste) and higher
strength organics (fats, oils and greases)
which are stored in separate tanks:
• 7.68 m x 5.87 m (68,000 USG)
Aquastore glass-fused-to-steel tank
with a glass knuckle roof. Knuckle
roofs tend to be used for smaller di-
ameter tanks.
• 4.26 m x 7.27 m (26,300 USG)
Aquastore glass-fused-to-steel tank
with a glass knuckle roof.
• 13.64 m x 11.45 m (431,000 USG)
Aquastore glass-fused-to-steel tank
with a Temcor aluminum dome.
DigestersA custom recipe of organics is trans-
ferred to the hydrolysis tank for pre-di-
gestion. The organic slurry is then fed
to two complete mix, mesophilic anaer-
obic digesters:
• 11.09 m x 11.46 m (269,000 USG)
combination epoxy and glass zone
tank, with an externally supported
roof (ESR). The ESR is often used
when medium to high pressure or
vacuum designs limits are expected.
They are also preferred for heavy
load conditions.
• 20.46 m x 18.44 m (1,523,000 USG)
hybrid epoxy/glass zone tank, insu-
lated and clad with an externally sup-
ported roof.
Digestate storage tankThe digestate remaining from the an-
aerobic digestion process is dewatered
to produce a fertilizer product. Great-
ario’s bolted tanks easily adapt for hy-
brid tank designs, allowing for different
coating systems for the gas and liquid
zones of the digester:
• 18.76 m x 8.7 m (610,000 USG) hy-
brid epoxy/glass zone tank with a gas
holder membrane roof.
Pre-aeration tankThe pre-aeration tank is used to pre-
treat the liquid effluent that comes from
the solid/liquid separation of the diges-
tate:
• 24.73m x 7.27m (844,600 USG)
epoxy tank designed for a dome roof.
• 5.11m x 7.27m (38,000 USG) Aqua-
store glass-fused-to-steel tank with a
glass knuckle roof.
Greatario provides complete storage
solutions for anaerobic digesters. Tanks
can be designed with different coating
systems for the gas and liquid zones
of the digester. Multiple cover options
are designed for digester applications,
including externally supported roofs,
pressure domes and membrane roofs.
For more information, visit www.greatario.com
Wet anaerobic digestion allows EFW plant to generate almost 25,000 megawatts annually
Externally supported roof of the digester.
SSSSSSppppppiiiiiillllllllllllssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllsssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
The Canadian Standards As-
sociation (CSA) has released
the first edition of the CAN/
CSA B-837 collapsible fabric
storage tanks (bladders) regulation. This
represents the world’s first standard for
collapsible bladder fuel storage tanks or
pillow tanks.
For years, regulators, operators and
manufacturers in Canada had no cred-
ible reference document that detailed
the minimum requirements for the use
of these storage bladders. This new
standard provides industry with a reli-
able source of information to ensure that
the use of collapsible fuel bladder tanks
meets the challenges of the harsh Arctic
conditions which is where they are typ-
ically deployed.
Paul Reichard, manager of SEI In-
dustries’ remote site and environmental
division, was a participating member and
vice-chair of the CSA committee that
prepared the new standard. SEI’s partici-
pation first began in 2008 when Feder-
al environmental regulations in Canada
changed. They accidentally excluded
collapsible fabric fuel tanks from the
regulations, making it difficult for major
clients like the Department of National
Defence and mineral exploration com-
panies to use bladders.
Once Environment Canada learn-
ed of the mistake, they set out to fix
the problem by developing a nation-
al standard to recognize bladders as a
safe, cost-effective and environment-
ally-friendly method of temporary fuel
storage in remote sites. The CSA took
over the development work with regu-
lators and end users across Canada, as
well as manufacturers around the world.
“Now that the standard is official, the
next step is certification and we’re cur-
rently working through that process,”
said Reichard. “Without regulation, the
fuel bladder can get a bad rap. Compan-
ies will sell an inferior product or mil-
itary surplus tanks that have passed their
shelf life. These bladders can leak or rup-
ture and make all bladders look bad.”
By 2015, SEI hopes to offer its Arc-
tic King tank as the first bladder certi-
fied by an accredited third party. Al-
ready, there is global interest. SEI has
been in discussions with regulators and
military customers that are looking for a
high-quality product and one that is rec-
ognized by a credible third party.
For more information, visit www.sei-ind.com
World’s first standard for collapsible fuel tanks released
www.greatario.com 519-469-8169 [email protected]
COMPLETE STORAGE SYSTEMS
MUNICIPAL • INDUSTRIALWATER • WASTEWATER
• BIOENERGY
Photo: Harvest Power's anaerobic digesters in London, ON.
November/December 2014 | 55 www.esemag.com
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine56 | November/December 2014
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Located in the high desert pla-
teau of southwestern Col-
orado, Pagosa Springs is
famous for its geothermal hot
springs, which draw visitors worldwide
to soak in the mineral-rich water. The
Ute people called the sulphur springs
“Pah-gosah,” meaning, “healing wat-
ers.” Now, the town’s potable water sys-
tem is also being healed.
After first combating blue-green
algae in the raw water reservoir and
then thermal stratification in the storage
tanks, Art Holloman, water superintend-
ent for the Pagosa Area Water and Sani-
tation District (PAWSD), learned that
SolarBee® mixers, with their long-dis-
tance circulation technology can solve
both types of problems. Mixers can also
reduce operating costs, restore water
quality and help with accurate water
sampling data.
The District relies on a series of raw
water reservoirs for its potable water.
The 130-acre Hatcher Reservoir had a
history of blue-green algae blooms that
caused taste and odour problems. Treat-
ing it with copper sulfate and activated
carbon filters was costly, according to
Holloman.
After consulting with Medora Cor-
poration’s engineers and limnologists,
PAWSD installed two SolarBee 10000
v12 solar-powered units near the water
treatment plant intake for partial-lake
treatment. To clear up the entire lake,
the District added three more units. The
blooms soon disappeared, as did con-
centrations of source water total organic
carbon (TOC).
“We have reduced copper sulfate
treatments by 70%, and the taste and
odour problems have disappeared,” said
Holloman. In addition, TOC levels have
decreased by about 1 to 2 mg/l. Based
on the improvements to Hatcher Res-
ervoir more units were installed in four
more supply system lakes.
Thermal stratification in storage tanks
PAWSD serves 12,000 residents
through an 11-tank potable water storage
and distribution system covering almost
200 km2. Representative sampling for
total chlorine monitoring was unreliable
due to thermal stratification and uneven
water-age, problems typical of unmixed
tanks. Three tanks were targeted for
improvement because stratification had
created variable water-age problems, in-
cluding an increased risk of disinfection
byproduct (DBP) violations.
SolarBee mixers installed in each
tank eliminated stratification. Results in
one tank were so successful it enabled
the District to acquire contact time cred-
its from the Colorado State Health De-
partment to meet the microscopic par-
ticulate analysis requirement. The other
two tanks have shown consistent chlor-
ine residuals and lower DBP concen-
trations. Presently, 20 mixers are being
used in the District’s lakes and tanks.
Long-distance mixingMedora Corporation’s long-distance
circulation and mixing technology pulls
dense water from the level of the intake,
which is typically near the thermocline
in an open reservoir, or at the floor in a
potable water storage tank. This dense
water is transported upwards and sent
across the surface in thin, horizontal lay-
ers. In raw water reservoirs, the constant
horizontal and vertical movement suffi-
ciently disrupts large-celled blue-green
algae and allows beneficial small-celled
algae to predominate. This restores the
food chain and returns the reservoir to
a healthy state. In potable water storage
tanks, the flow pattern effectively scrubs
the floor and sides of the entire tank,
constantly replacing disinfectant and
killing bacteria in critical areas.
For more information, visit www.medoraco.com
Solar mixers help Pagosa Springs restore its potable water system
SolarBee mixers help reduce the cost of chemically treating the reservoir and
solve thermal stratification problems in the tanks.
“We have reduced copper sulfate treatments
by 70%, and the taste and odour problems
have disappeared,” said Holloman.
November/December 2014 | 57 www.esemag.com
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An industrial laundering facility in Ontario required
equalization and storage of wastewater from their
operation, prior to discharging it to the municipal
sewer system. Engineering staff and the facility
constructor reviewed different tank types and determined that
a built on site H2Flow Permastore glass-fused-to-steel tank
was the preferred option.
This type of tank combines the strength and flexibility of
steel with the corrosion resistance of glass. It is cost-effective
for many applications and its long life span, rapid erection and
tight site constraints made it a great option for this project.
Even though there is no regulatory requirement for sec-
ondary containment of wastewater at this facility, the owners
determined that they would like the wastewater tank to be
double walled. This was a decision based primarily on due
diligence and compliance management, and was in keeping
with the overall company policy on bulk liquid storage.
There was an issue of space, however. This is where the
glass-fused-to-steel construction method had a significant
advantage. The Permastore modular bolted construction pro-
vided fast and relatively low cost installation of the double
walled tank. As the inner and outer tanks were delivered to the
site in sections, the 100 m3 tank could be built in place.
Due to the incredibly tight space constraints at the facility,
it was determined that the volume of the outer tank shell could
hold 110% of the volume of the inner tank. The tank could
not be made high enough to guarantee that the horizontal
trajectory of a potential leak from the inner tank at the top
water level would be confined within the secondary wall of
the equalization tank. However, this is unlikely to happen due
to the design and construction of these tanks.
Additionally, the client had requested a roof be built be-
tween the two tanks, based on the design of a similar con-
tainment system at another of their facilities. This was to pre-
vent any snow/rain water from accumulating between the two
tanks.
Installation went smoothly and no leaks from the inner
tank have been recorded. In the unlikely event of a leak, an ef-
fective system is in place for spill containment of wastewater.
For more information, Email: [email protected]
Laundering facility comes clean with secondary containment tanks
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine58 | November/December 2014
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Are Canadian businesses and
industries continuing to be
too complacent about their
abilities to handle environ-
mental spill emergencies, despite the
growing number of incidents occuring
around them?
It seems many are satisfied to put
their faith in environmental plans that
meet federal and provincial require-
ments and in responders who have ex-
tensive classroom and textbook train-
ing.
What they either don’t understand,
or simply ignore, is that some of the
recognized training standards concen-
trate on basic health and safety, but do
not provide response capability. The
training does not deal with site-specif-
ic and product-specific training and
response strategies that demonstrate
response capability when it comes to
ASIA-R – Approach, Secure, Identify,
Assess and Respond.
We expect Canadian companies
to be prepared to protect the health of
people and the environment in times of
environmental emergencies. That is the
point of the Environmental Emergency
(E2) requirements under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
An E2 plan must document ways to
prevent, prepare for, respond to and re-
cover from environmental emergencies
caused by toxic or other hazardous sub-
stances. A plan that provides a broad
framework for response, permits flex-
ibility in applying alternative strategies
to deal with hazardous substances,
and is regularly exercised by trained
responders, will meet the E2 require-
ments.
Yet, do companies go far enough in
exercising their emergency response
plans and developing their response
capabilities? Planners and responders
may get a false sense of preparedness
if they have not conducted an in-depth
analysis. This involves the “what if” of
an environmental emergency to deter-
mine if supplies, equipment and train-
ing, along with appropriate response
procedures and strategies, are adequate.
While emergency exercises can be full
scale, operational or process specific,
they must deal with an organization’s
greatest liabilities, the range of impacts
for both minor and major events and any
time-critical factors involved.
Today, there are still private and gov-
ernment organizations that believe their
planning is adequate and are determined
to stick to their plans. They may not
realize, or want to admit, who has the
ultimate responsibility for their regula-
tory compliance in the event of a release
of chemicals into the environment. Or
who the “go-to-jail” person is!
Many federal and provincial environ-
mental officers have field experience
and hands-on training in countermea-
sures. This allows them to be excellent
judges of the effectiveness of respond-
ers and their response actions.
To train responders to implement
their emergency response plans, com-
panies often turn to the standards of the
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA). These spell
out how business and industry must
train and prepare for incidents involving
spills and releases of hazardous prod-
ucts. The OSHA standard for training
is commonly called HAZWOPER, for
hazardous waste operations and emer-
gency response.
Companies can adopt U.S. HAZ-
WOPER training for their own oper-
ations. This will give them response
crews capable of a complete range of
response and remediation activities. But
the training that works in a multi-chem-
ical manufacturing environment, close
to support equipment, experienced
emergency response services and com-
petent response contractors, may not
be much use in other circumstances.
Response efforts can be defeated, or
hampered by lengthy decision-mak-
ing processes to define and implement
a crisis action plan that fits within the
company’s emergency plan.
Therefore, companies must have an
emergency response plan that is flex-
ible. In a crisis, skilled and trained re-
sponders need to have the authority and
necessary resources to take immediate
Alternative spill response training strategies are vitalBy Cliff Holland
Kayaks have proven to be an adaptable spill response tool. Maneuverable in
water, they can also be used as sleds during the winter.
November/December 2014 | 59 www.esemag.com
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action without waiting for a command
centre and structure to be set up.
In effect, the actions of the first re-
sponders drive the plan and how it un-
folds. Responders must have skills and
training that is product-specific and
site-specific to develop strategic alterna-
tives, rather than having to follow a hard
line of practices and procedures.
I’ve worked in the waste manage-
ment field since the late 1970s and
saw the industry become more sophis-
ticated. In 1989, Spill Management was
launched to provide custom response
training for a wide range of clients, with
exercises that range from cleaning up
high risk and small laboratory spills,
to dealing with large industrial process
spills to land and water.
In mining, forestry or pipeline oper-
ations, emergency responders may
have to cope with difficult access to the
scene, debris, heavy vegetation, high
and fast flowing waters. They need to
improvise response measures to obtain
road access, establish points of entry
or find the right conditions for ideal
boom deployment. Weather conditions,
including snow or rain, temperatures,
wind direction and velocity, and the
amount of daylight, have to be taken
into consideration. It all has to be done
quickly and efficiently, to reduce the in-
cident’s impact.
In order to put alternative strategies
in place, responders must know the
properties of response materials. On
waterways, they may need to decide on
the type of boom to use, whether it is
simply to contain spilled oil, or to ab-
sorb it as well. They also need to know
how to deploy booms and to securely
anchor them. They must have a plan to
clean up and collect spilled material and
store and dispose of it.
Today, you are taking a very serious
risk if you depend only on textbook
training, a checklist approach for pre-
paredness and the belief that “it” will
never happen. Even a small spill can
interfere with, or kill, living organisms
and result in a conviction. Recognizing
this means training for today’s environ-
mental reality.
Any training exercise needs to exam-
ine the roles and responsibilities of re-
sponse team members as laid out in the
emergency response plan, the provisions
for incident command and control, and
Any training exercise needs to examine the roles and
responsibilities of response team members as laid out in the
emergency response plan, the provisions for incident command
and control, and the entire structure that will be available.
continued overleaf...
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine60 | November/December 2014
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the entire structure that will be available
to support on-site response measures.
That includes the possibility of need-
ing outside resources, the availability
of those resources and what happens if
outside help is called in.
I can think of one situation where a
chemical company called 911 because
of a small chemical fire. The fire depart-
ment responded and assumed control of
the scene.
They refused to allow plant work-
ers to go behind the plant to shut off the
flow from a chemical storage tank that
was feeding the flames. While the fire
department was assessing the risks and
hazards, determining the appropriate re-
sponse action, and ensuring the safety of
staff members and a gathering crowd, the
plant burned down. It was never rebuilt.
The company had workers who pos-
sessed the knowledge and ability to help
bring the situation under control. How-
ever, its response to the emergency was
to evacuate and call the fire department.
It cost them everything.
EquipmentYou can’t always count on having
everything you would like to have, when
operating in more remote areas. To over-
come this, supplies must be able to be
used in a number of different ways. This
includes improvising spill control meas-
ures that allow for various weather, ter-
rain and access conditions.
Spill Management, for instance, has
added three kayaks to its spill response
training equipment. The kayaks were re-
cently used in site-specific training ses-
sions for both a pipeline company and
mining company in northern Ontario.
The ease of using a kayak means that
booms could be quickly placed to con-
tain a spill and make recovery easier.
If a company has to position booms
on water or move supplies to a spill site
over water, kayaks can be an ideal al-
ternative to larger boats. They are much
easier to move to a site in a pickup truck
or an all-terrain vehicle, are very man-
euverable in water and can have a num-
ber of other uses.
SummaryAlternative training strategies are ex-
tremely valuable. They allow respond-
ers to choose effective ways to respond
to an incident, rather than being tied to
rigid policies and procedures. By teach-
ing effective and immediate response
countermeasures, costs and the impact
to people, property and the environment
are reduced. Effective training includes
alternative strategies that meet or exceed
the ISO 14000 Environmental Manage-
ment System emergency preparedness
and program development criteria.
There are many operations across
our country in environmentally sensitive
areas that need plans specifically for the
chemicals, products and conditions they
are dealing with. They also need to be
prepared to deal with all risks and all
hazard situations in a timely and effect-
ive manner.
Cliff Holland is Environmental Director of Spill Management Inc.
Email: [email protected]
Environmental | Food | Mineral | Petroleum
Have you downloaded our “Guide to Current Sampling Practices”?
www.cala.ca/sampleguide
www.greatario.com 519-469-8169
GREATARIO is the market leader for the sale and construction of liquid storage solutions for municipal and industrial markets in eastern Canada. Continuing company growth has created an opportunity for a technical sales person based in Ontario. The focus of the position will be to develop, grow and maintain relationships with municipal and industrial customers. Previous technical sales experience in the municipal and industrial water and wastewater markets is preferred. Providing application guidance and technical expertise to our existing customer base is an asset. The ability to develop multi-level and diverse market business for all of Greatario’s engineered products and solu-tions by calling on end users, engineering firms, manufacturers and contractors is required. If you are driven by exceeding customer expectations, innovative solutions and dynamic opportunities, we urge you to submit your resume to: [email protected]. indicating the job title.We offer a competitive base salary with unlimited potential for the right person. Vehicle plan and benefits included.
Build a career with us!
November/December 2014 | 61 www.esemag.com
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Over the past 15 years, en-
vironmental standards for
the discharge of refinery ef-
fluent back into the environ-
ment have become extremely stringent
and are currently at 15 ppm. This can
put a lot of pressure on oil companies to
comply.
Industrial wastewater found in the
internal collection sewers and basins
of oil refineries contains petroleum by-
products and raw crude oil. Installing oil
skimming technology helps recover these
valuable products, returning them to the
refining process. Besides the financial
return, there is a positive benefit to the
environment by reducing the amount of
hydrocarbons in the effluent.
In 2008, Chevron approached Aqua-
Guard to design a custom solution to
replace the outdated and inefficient
pipe weir skimming system at a refin-
ery’s API separation basins. Chevron
was looking to upgrade their system to
fully meet all effluent discharge require-
ments.
In order to cut down the amount of
chemicals used in the secondary pro-
cessing stage, the skimming system
would need to remove most of the sur-
face hydrocarbons in the primary sep-
aration ponds. This would reduce the
amount of carry over hydrocarbons into
the secondary treatment ponds.
Aqua-Guard proposed installing oil
skimming systems equipped with RBS
TRITON™ skimming technology. This
recovers up to 98% of the surface oil,
thereby increasing efficiency of the pri-
mary separation stage by almost 99%.
To withstand the highly corrosive
API environment, industrial skimmers
must be constructed of stainless steel.
The system relies on adhesion of oil to
the surface of a rotating stainless steel
disc. As the disc rotates through the oil/
water surface, oil adheres to the disc
and is removed by a scraper. Recovered
product is collected in a common sump
and pumped back into the refinery sys-
tem for use. Discs can be interchanged
with either drums or brushes, for re-
covering various types of oil.
Since the site had an adequate air
power source, the unit is 100% pneu-
matically powered, from the oil skim-
mer head and the rotating stainless steel
disc recovery system, to the double dia-
phragm pump used to recover the product.
The fully automated floating oil-skim-
ming systems were installed in the pri-
mary separation ponds. Each skimmer is
capable of recovering up to 63 m3/hour of
surface hydrocarbons. They were paired
with two externally mounted pneumatic
pumps, each capable of 20 m3/hour. To
adapt to fluctuating basin levels, reduce
wastewater circulation and maximize
oil recovery, the skimmers needed to be
self-adjusting.
Since 2008, the system has run
trouble free for over 50,000 hours.
The skimmers are serviced only twice
a year, primarily for maintenance pur-
poses. The estimated maximum hydro-
carbon recovery of these systems is
870,000 m3.
Shell oil refineries in Asia and other
national oil companies in Latin America
now also employ this patented oil skim-
ming technology in their industrial pro-
cesses to help optimize their refining.
Aqua-Guard recently launched and
supplied a new RBS TRITON 100 in-
dustrial oil skimming system capable of
recovering over 100 m3/hour. These sys-
tems have been specifically designed for
export to countries where higher amounts
of oil are present in their primary separ-
ation ponds and require higher recovery
rates from skimming systems.
Nigel J. Bennett is with Aqua-Guard Spill Response.
Email: [email protected]
Oil skimming technology helps firms meet regulations and recover lost product By Nigel J. Bennett
An Aqua-Guard oil skimming system in operation at a refinery.
Since 2008, the system has run
trouble free for over 50,000 hours.
The skimmers are serviced only
twice a year, primarily for main-
tenance purposes. The estimated
maximum hydrocarbon recovery of
these systems is 870,000 m3.
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine62 | November/December 2014
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Constructing massive precast concrete structures with
CON/SPAN® provides choices for design engineers
and assembly options for contractors.
The Denison Road Storm Water Retention Tank
in Toronto (Georgetown South Project) by Metrolinx (GO
Transit) is one of many applications of CON/SPAN. It is not
a new application, but the size and installation method used
make the application noteworthy.
Design and construction of the retention tank was needed
for the treatment and disposal of stormwater run-off from a
total catchment area of 4.86 hectares. The structure was also
required to provide enhanced water quality protection and
discharge via an existing storm sewer network for all storm
events up to and including a 100-year return storm.
Design of the system resulted in a 4,000 m3 underground
stormwater retention tank comprised of 62 precast concrete
units measuring 9,755 mm wide by 2,740 mm high. Some
pieces were specially designed skewed end units for bends,
while other pieces were narrower at the beginning and end of
the structure. All were designed to S6.1S1-10 - Supplement #1 to S6.1-06, Commentary on CAN/CSA-S6-06, Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code and CSA A23.4-09 (R2014) - Precast Concrete - Materials and Construction.
Pre-project planning started in 2011 with the concept for
the CON/SPAN option, which would require a cast-in-place
foundation and channel. The units were produced and shipped
from the Guelph, Ontario facility of Con Cast Pipe.
Another reason for selecting a precast concrete retention
system was the complexity of the tank location. It sits dir-
ectly underneath the Denison Road GO Transit grade separa-
tion and a metre below Denison Road, where it passes under
the railway overpass. The structure had to be constructed
in a short period within an established neighbourhood and
roadway right-of-way where it was difficult to make use of
heavy equipment. Cambridge Rigging’s 300-tonne mobile
boom crane was used to install CON/SPAN units to the grade
Precast concrete structures used for massive Toronto stormwater retention tank By Adam Polski
A 300-tonne crane installs the first precast concrete unit on the completed base slab of the stormwater retention tank.
November/December 2014 | 63 www.esemag.com
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separation. However, a Goldhofer crawler was needed to
install them under the rail overpass. Using precast concrete
units saved time, limited the impact of construction on the
neighbourhood and commuters, and helped the contractor
meet the construction schedule.
Upon completion of the foundation, Dufferin Construc-
tion, a division of Holcim (Canada) Inc., constructed cast-
in-place bulkheads at each end, connected catch basins into
the CON/SPAN structure, and constructed a cast-in-place
maintenance-hole base on top. This allowed the precast riser
sections to be installed to the finished grade of Denison Road.
Stormwater would be pumped from the tank to an oil/sedi-
ment control structure for treatment, and then discharged into
the nearby storm sewer system.
Cambridge Rigging and Engineering in Motion were re-
sponsible for planning and executing the installation of all of
the precast sections.
Construction of the tank began with excavation for a poured-
in-place channel that would also serve as the base of the struc-
ture. Footings for the CON/SPAN units were poured in place.
The first unit was set on June 24, 2014, using the mobile crane.
As installation approached the grade separation, Cambridge
Rigging switched from the boom crane to the crawler to install
the precast units. The process involved a precast unit being
carefully centred on the crawler by the crane and tied securely.
Then it was rotated on the crawler 60 degrees so it fit between
the footings. The remote controlled, diesel powered crawler
then began its slow pace toward the overpass. A Kevlar strap
joined the crawler to a front-end loader that served as both an
anchor and safety vehicle to slow downhill movement.
When the crawler arrived to deliver its payload, it was man-
euvered into position to gently place the CON/SPAN unit into
the footing to rest on a neoprene strip that aided waterproofing,
while shimming the legs. The final CON/SPAN unit was placed
on July 3, 2014, completing the 10-day installation.
Construction of the retention tank was only one compon-
ent of this complex project. Metrolinx retained R.V. Anderson
Associates Limited to carry out detailed design and provide
services during construction for a new railway grade separa-
tion for improved rail service and for the Union Station–Pear-
son Airport Rail Link. The project included two reinforced
concrete railway bridges, tieback retaining wall system, and
the new precast stormwater retention tank.
G.D. Jewell Engineering Inc. was the structural designer of
the CON/SPAN system and prepared the general arrangement
drawing from the R.V. Anderson/Morrison Hershfield design.
When completed, the public will see the Denison Road
grade separation that accommodates a rail system for com-
muters and travellers to and from Lester B. Pearson Inter-
national Airport, a pedestrian underpass, and improved road
pavement. What won’t be visible is a modern underground
precast concrete stormwater retention and treatment system
designed to last for generations.
Adam Polski, C.E.T. is with Con Cast Pipe. Email:[email protected]
The remote controlled, diesel powered crawler slowly de-
scends the ramp toward the overpass.
CON/SPAN unit maneuvered into position to rest on the
neoprene-padded footing.
After setting the precast unit, the crawler returns to re-
ceive the next unit.
Installation of the CON/SPAN units on the poured-in-
place channel took 10 days.
Sto
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine64 | November/December 2014
Assmann Corporation of America
Small double wall tanks, from 20 to 405 gallons, provide primary and secondary containment for hazardous and corrosive chemicals in one unit. Linear polyeth-ylene tanks are certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 61, and high-density crosslink resin tanks for chemical storage. ISO 9001:2008 Certified.Web: www.assmann-usa.com
Small double wall tanks
The patented Hexa-Cover® system can be used on all kinds of liquids. It is the ideal solution for eliminating: • Evaporation • Organic growth • Emission • Odour The unique design makes the elements interlock by wind pressure and ensure that the Hexa-Cover tiles mechanically constitute a coherent cover.
Tel: 519-469-8169, Fax: 519-469-8157E-mail: [email protected]: www.greatario.com
Greatario Engineered Storage Systems
The H2FLOW SBR consists of FLUIDYNE Sequencing Batch Reactor internals integrated into a glass-fused-to-steel tank. It features jet aeration headers that never require replacement, and a solids-excluding fixed decanter which has been proven in many installations. Tel: 905-660-9775 Web: www.h2flow.com
H2FLOW SBR
H2Flow Equipment
Spill Management
Specialist training
Practical
Hands-on
Progressive
Formats
Tel: 905-578-9666, Fax: 905-578-6644
E-mail: [email protected]: www.spillmanagement.ca
Westeel
Westeel’s C-Ring Con-tainment Sys-tems are ideal for petro-chemical, frac water storage, oil and gas, fertilizer,
hazardous material, and agricultural applications. All systems are made with high-strength (50-ksi) steel and have heavy-duty G115 galvanizing, meeting the stringent requirements of ISO 9001.Tel: 888-674-8265, 204-233-7133Fax: 888-463-6012E-mail: [email protected]: www.westeel.com
Containment system
Wise Environmental Solutions Inc. specializes in: frac, mini mixer, 4 motor mixer, open top, poly and double wall tank rentals, as well as vacuum, dewatering and environmental roll-off boxes. We pride ourselves on safety and offer competitive transportation and disposal rates.Tel: 519-860-5589 or 519-542-6667E-mail: [email protected]: www.wiseenv.com
Rentals
Wise Environmental Solutions
KG Services specialize in emergency roadside spill response in Ontario. All of their staff is licensed, insured and fully trained. Service is available 24/7, 365 days a year.
24/7 Emergency Tel: 877-850-3120 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.kgservice.ca
Emergency spill response
KG Services
TEAM-1 Academy
TEAM-1 Academy Inc. is North America’s leader in HazMat, Confined Space and Working at Heights Training which can be facilitated at your location or one of our centers. We conduct training for many enforcement agencies, and for industry and construction. Tel: 905-827-0007Fax: 905-827-0049E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.team1academy.com
Safety training
Tank Connection (TC) was selected to design, manufacture and install a turnkey package of Bolted RTP (rolled, tapered panel) liq-uid storage tanks with secondary containment and aluminum domes. TC’s RTP tanks and aluminum geodesic domes represent innovation in design, unmatched quality and performance.Tel: 620-423-3010E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.tankconnection.com
Secondary Containment Solutions
Tank Connection Affiliate Group
Pro
du
ct & S
erv
ice S
ho
wca
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November/December 2014 | 65 www.esemag.com
ACG Technology
Prevent pump ragging
The legendary Muffin Monster sewage grinder has the power to tear through the toughest solids, including wipes, rags, plastics, leaves, branches, clothing and debris, to protect pumps from clogging. The Muffin Monster easily installs in gravity fed sewer channels or inline sewer lines. Tel: 905-856-1414Web: www.acgtechnology.com
ACG Technology
The Honey Monster Septage Receiving system, Model SRS-XE, is an all-in-one unit that allows the cleaner handling of septage truck waste by reducing and separating unwanted trash such as rocks, wipes, rags, clothing, plastics and other debris.Tel: 905-856-1414Web: www.acgtechnology.com
Septage receiving automation
• Optimizes all types of filters• Extremely low profile; lowest available• Manufactured from corrosion-resistant stainless steel• Variable custom orifice sizing• Custom hydraulic design• Guaranteed uniform air scour distribution• Rapid, low-cost installationTel: 403-255-7377, Fax: 403-255-3129E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.awifilter.com
Phoenix Underdrain System
AWI
Phoenix Panel System
• Upgrades and optimizes all types of filters• Installs directly over existing underdrain system• Eliminates the need for base gravel layers• Improves backwash flow distribution• Provides longer filter runs and lower turbidity effluentTel: 403-255-7377, Fax: 403-255-3129E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.awifilter.com
AWI
American Public University
Online education
Take your expertise to the next level with American Public University (APU). APU offers more than 190 degree and certifi-cate programs including Environmental Science, Environmental Policy & Man-agement, and more – completely online.
Tel: 877-777-9081E-mail: [email protected]: www.StudyatAPU.com/ESE
Chemline Plastics
ChemFlare™ connections solve failure problems on PVC threaded/solvent welds on sodium hypo-chlorite dosing panels. For use with ball, relief valves and dosing pumps, they are easy to install, disassemble and do not add dead volume. Chemline offers an entire system, including PFA flare fit-tings and tubing.
Tel: 905-889-7890, Fax: 905-889-8553E-mail: [email protected]: www.chemline.com
End connections
Water infiltration problems? Many mu-nicipalities are now enjoying the benefits, ease and cost savings in using Denso 12” petrola-tum tape to wrap chamber exteriors to ar-rest the prob-lem of water ingress. Contact Denso to help solve your chamber issues.
Tel: 416-291-3435, Fax: 416-291-0898E-mail: [email protected]: www.densona.com
Stop water infiltration
Denso
The Memobase Plus CYZ71D helps you save time and money with one simple calibration and documentation tool. You can work safely in a clean, controlled environment and elim-inate human error with electronic record keeping. Create true sensor life cycle management.
Tel: 800-668-3199, 905-681-9292Fax: 905-681-9444E-mail: [email protected]: www.ca.endress.com/CYZ71D
Sensor management tool
Endress+Hauser Canada
The Proline Promag 400 flowmeter offers HistoRom secure automated device back-up, Heartbeat technology for continuous self-di-agnostics and device verification, and certified corrosion protection for use underground or under water without modifications.
Tel: 800-668-3199, 905-681-9292Fax: 905-681-9444E-mail: [email protected]: www.ca.endress.com/5L4C
Electromagnetic flowmeter
Endress+Hauser Canada
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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine66 | November/December 2014
For difficult wastewater problems, dissolved air flotation (DAF) may be the right choice. Try out the H2FLOW DAF unit to see if the results make sense to clarify your water. The skid-mounted unit, complete with accessories, is designed to treat 80 Lpm. A flatbed trailer is optional.Tel: 905-660-9775 Web: www.h2flow.com
DAF pilot unit
H2Flow Equipment
Huber Technology
Advanced MBR screen
Huber has introduced the Rotamat® perforated plate screen RPPS STAR. Utilizing a patented pleated perforated plate increases throughput by 25%. This allows a smaller footprint, which results in reduced capital cost for screen and structure. Tel: 704-990-2055, Fax: 704-949-1020 E-mail: [email protected]: www.Huberforum.net/RPPS
Geneq
The Model F-10300 process centrifuge is specifically designed for process control sampling applications to de-termine solids concentration in percent volume. The centrifuge test gives rapid results: six or more sludge samples can be run in 15 minutes in a lab centrifuge. The data obtained has been proven to be more than adequate for process control.Tel: 514-354-2511, Fax: 514-354-6948E-mail: [email protected]: www.geneq.com
Process centrifuge
U20L, the new low cost HOBO Water Level Logger, measures water level, barometric pressure, pressure (absolute), and temperature. Its self-contained, non-vented design enables easy deployment for use in wells, streams, lakes, wetlands and tidal areas. It has a durable ceramic pressure sensor.
Tel: 604-872-7894Fax: 604-872-0281E-mail: [email protected]: www.hoskin.ca
Water level logger
Hoskin Scientific
The HOBO U26-001 Dissolved Oxygen Logger features: monitoring with 0.2 mg/L accuracy; optical DO sensor technology; optical USB interface; and, easy-to-replace DO sensor cap. Software corrects for measurement drift from fouling.
Tel: 604-872-7894 Fax: 604-872-0281E-mail: [email protected]: www.hoskin.ca
DO logger
Hoskin Scientific
Huber Technology invented the RoK4 vertical confined space screen tech-nology to physi-cally screen out debris in confined spaces such as pump stations, wet wells, etc. Three diameters are avail-able with machine lengths as high as ~40’. Over 700 units have been installed worldwide.Tel: 704-990-2055 E-mail: [email protected]: www.Huberforum.net
Vertical screen technology
Huber Technology
Fluid Metering has published a new
catalogue of precision dispensers and
metering pumps for
laboratory, industrial,
process and OEM
applications. FMI
products feature
unique piston-type
positive displacement
units with no valves,
low-dead volume, 1% accuracy, a
ceramic/fluorocarbon fluid path, and a
range from 500 nanoliters per dispense
up to 4,600 ml/min continuous metering.Tel: 800-223-3388Web: www.fmipump.com
New catalogue
Fluid Metering
Process mixing system
The HYDRAULIX mixing systems feature a unique double nozzle design which allows for even energy distribution. This process optimizes solids suspension and contact to promote efficiency in a wide range of wastewater and bio-fuels applications.
E: [email protected]: www.greatario.com
Greatario Engineered Storage Systems
This Jellyfish® Fil-ter was suspended from a parking deck platform, conserving valu-able space within a 31 story high-rise residential tower in downtown Van-couver. The mem-brane-based Jellyfish Filter was selected based on stormwater pollutant removal performance, compact and lightweight footprint, ease of maintenance, and credit towards LEED certification.Tel: 800-565-4801E-mail: [email protected]: www.imbriumsystems.com
Stormwater management
Imbrium Systems
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Stormceptor® MAX, licensed and man-ufactured by Lécuyer in Québec, was installed along Autoroute 40 to treat roadway runoff. The MAX is customized per site, and designed using the standard model Stormceptor principles. Its proven performance has been verified by ETV.Tel: 800-565-4801E-mail: [email protected]: www.imbriumsystems.com
Stormwater protection
Imbrium Systems
At IPEX, we understand the complexity of design and in-stallation for de-manding double containment ap-plications. Our double contain-ment systems include GuardianTM PVC and CPVC, Clear-GuardTM PVC, Drain-GuardTM PVC, EncaseTM PP, CustomGuard® FRP and metal systems, and Centra-GuardTM leak detection.Tel: 866-473-9462Web: www.ipexinc.com
Double containment and leak detection
IPEX
IPEX offers Xirtec®140 (PVC) and Cor-zan® (CPVC), a complete system of pipe, valves and fittings to meet the temperature, pressure and size requirements of piping systems used in chemical processes and other industrial applications. This is a long service, low maintenance alternative to common and exotic metal systems.Tel: 866-473-9462Web: www.ipexinc.com
Process piping systems
IPEX
The ACAT screw press is now available in North America exclusively through Kusters Water, a division of Kusters Zima Corporation. It is an efficient and reliable way of dewatering sludge. The slow rotational speed, low mainte-nance, noise level and energy consump-tion are significant advantages over other technologies.
Tel: 864-576-0660Web: www.kusterswater.com
Screw press
Kusters Water
Interpreter register
Master Meter’s Interpreter Regis-ter System, based on proven Dia-log® 3G technol-ogy, is a universal AMR upgrade that replaces the existing register
on almost any brand of meter in minutes, without service interruption. It delivers AMR technology without wires orconnections.Tel: 514-795-1535E-mail: [email protected]: www.mastermeter.com
Master Meter
Ultrasonic meter
Octave® offers the latest in ultrasonic metering technology and is an excellent alternative to mechanical compound, single-jet, and turbine meters with no moving parts. Octave excels at maintain-ing sustained accuracy for the life of the meter while providing smart AMRcapabilities.Tel: 514-795-1535E-mail: [email protected]: www.mastermeter.com
Master Meter MONITARIO Technical Services
MONITARIO builds flumes. It designs, fabricates, installs and certifies accuracy and has for over 25 years. The CAD/CAM process has simplified the task. Installations are easier and faster with crucial dimensions maintained. Accuracy is guaranteed. Tel: 519-748-8024 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.monitario.com
Primary element flumes
KSB Canada
KSB’s Amarex N submersible pumps are designed to min-imize total cost of ownership over their full life cycle. Leak-proof cable entries, one-piece housing, high-efficiency mo-tors and available non-clogging impel-lers all contribute to low-cost, trouble-free service in the most demanding operating environments.Tel: 905-568-9200, Fax: 905-568-3740 E-mail: [email protected]: www.ksbcanada.com
Low-maintenance submersible pumps
MSU Mississauga Ltd. is excited to an-nounce the launch of its new website and e-catalogue.
Check out this useful and informative site at www.msumississauga.com
Tel: 800-268-5336, Fax: 888-220-2213E-mail: [email protected]: www.msumississauga.com
MSU Mississauga
New website and e-catalogue
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine68 | November/December 2014 Pro
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Thousands of Ontario businesses are reducing capital costs for energy efficiency projects, shortening payback periods and lowering operating costs with the help of saveONenergy incentives. Get started on your next project.
E-mail: [email protected]: saveonenergy.ca/business
Ontario Power Authority
Get incentives for energy efficient upgrades
MSU MG Safety Hatches are the “open and shut case” for access hatches. They are manufactured to CSA standards right here in Canada by Canadian Welding Bureau certified welders.
Web: www.msumississauga.com
Access hatches
MSU Mississauga
The Invent Hyperclassic® mixer uses a high efficiency hyperboloid-shaped mixer body near the bot-tom of the tank, with a dry location, top mounted drive. Low energy, highly effective mixing of floc tanks, an-oxic zones, storage tanks, etc. Thousands of these highly efficient mixers have been installed worldwide.
Tel: (905) 864-9311Web: www.proaquasales.com
Pro Aqua
Mixing and aeration systems
Available in 17 models and 5 casing sizes, no-body offers a wider range of applica-tions. Simple, Rugged and Powerful Pumps. All wetted parts can be removed in-place, without removing piping, cou-pling, motor or pump.
Tel: (905) 864-9311Web: www.proaquasales.com
Borger rotary lobe pumps
Pro Aqua
Munro Span® Precast Bridges preserve natural streambeds and wildlife habitats while installing faster and lasting longer. They come in spans up to 16 m, with high quality, test fitted modules for set-in-place construction of bridges, and with skewed sections, wingwalls, headwalls, endwalls and footings. E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.munroltd.com/span
Precast bridges
Munro
Orival, Inc. has supplied thousands of water conserving automatic self-cleaning filtration systems, removing suspended solids, to a wide variety of global customers for nearly 30 years. Sizes range from ¾” to 24”, with filtration degrees down to 5 microns.
Tel: 201-568-3311, Fax: 201-568-1916 E-mail: [email protected]: www.orival.com
Filtration systems
Orival Water Filters Osprey Scientific
Horiba LAQUAtwin meters provide a quick and reliable measurement for pH, conductivity, sodium, potassium, nitrate, calcium, and salt, with only a single drop to the highly-sensitive, flat sensor technol-ogy. You can carry out water quality test-ing and sample in situ without the need for labware.
Tel: 1-800-560-4402, Fax: 1-877-820-9667E-mail: [email protected]: www.ospreyscientific.com
Water quality meters
ProMinent’s new CBR sensor, developed for accurate free chlorine measurement in water up to a 9.5 pH, installs easily and directly connects to ProMinent’s control-lers. This complements the company’s sensors for measuring parameters in drink-ing water and wastewater treatment.
Tel: 888-709-9933E-mail: [email protected]: www.prominent.ca
Free chlorine measurement
ProMinent Fluid Controls
The Delta® pump offers an option for chemicals that off-gas (like bleach, peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide). It senses when gas enters the dosing head and purges it to continue pump-ing without in-terruption. The Delta prevents air locked pumps.
Tel: 888-709-9933E-mail: [email protected]: www.prominent.ca
Diaphragm metering pump
ProMinent Fluid Controls
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Xylem
WEDECO Ozone Generators from Xylem eliminate pollutants, coloured substances, odours and micro-organisms without creating harmful byproducts. They are compact in design to reduce overall footprint, and provide reduced energy consumption per unit of ozone production.Tel: 514-695-0100, Fax: 514-697-0602Web: www.xylemwatersolutions.com/ca
Chemical-free water treatment
Grit removal system
Smith & Loveless
PISTA®Works™ is a packaged all in one headworks and grit removal scheme, offering a compact footprint and speedy/efficient installation. The system fea-tures a fully automated control system, an integrated screening system for solids retention, a PISTA® Grit Concentrator, a PISTA® TURBO™ Grit Washer and a PISTA® 360™ Grit Chamber.Tel: 913-888-5201, Fax: 913-888-2173E-mail: [email protected]: www.smithandloveless.com
Xylem
Xylem’s WEDECO ECORAY® ul-traviolet lamps offer significant savings in op-eration and life cycle costs. The UV lamps incorporate a new long-life coating and improved overall stability and performance. An innovative gas and amalgam mixture in the lamp utilizes up to 80 percent less mercury. Correspond-ing electronic ballast cards have been fine-tuned to the specific requirements of ECORAY lamp aging characteristics.Tel: 514-695-0100, Fax: 514-697-0602Web: www.xylemwatersolutions.com/ca
Amalgam UV lamps
Everyone claims to be number one, offering the best, but we know only the customers can determine that. We un-derstand that downtime hurts. Let us simplify your choice for complete drive automation. Our goals are to keep your uptime up and your downtime down. Make it SEW.
Tel: 905-791-1553E-mail: [email protected]: www.sewcan.ca
SEW Eurodrive
Drive automation
The Solinst CMT Multilevel System provides site assessors with detailed groundwater data from up to seven discrete zones in one well. CMT systems are inexpensive and easy to install. Their flexibility allows port locations and monitoring strategy to be finalized on site.
Tel: 905-873-2255, Fax: 905-873-1992E-mail: [email protected]: www.solinst.com
Flexible multilevel monitoring
Solinst Canada
The Waterra Clear PVC Eco-Bailer and Weighted Polyethylene EcoBailer are both eco-friendly products. A better weight distribution allows these bailers to sink straighter and the efficient valve design makes them the fastest sinking bailers available.
Tel: 905-238-5242, Fax: 905-238-5704E-mail: [email protected]: www.waterra.com
PVC or polyethylene
Waterra Pumps
The AP-2000 AQUAPROBE™ portable multiparameter probe gives you a choice! Supplied with five standard parameters (Optical DO, EC, pH, ORP & Temp), it also allows customization and includes an ion selec-tive electrode socket and an optical sensors electrode socket. A wide range of electrodes are available.Tel: 905-238-5242, Fax: 905-238-5704E-mail: [email protected]: www.waterra.com
Multi parameter probe
Waterra Pumps
The WSP-12V-5 Tornado® pump is capable of pumping up to 100 feet from ground level by simply connecting it to a 12 volt battery. Its reliable design is suit-able for continuous sampling and purging of groundwater wells.
Tel: 905-238-5242, Fax: 905-238-5704E-mail: [email protected]: www.waterra.com
Submersible pump
Waterra Pumps
Waterra Pumps
The Pegasus Alexis® Peristaltic Pump from Waterra is a self contained sampling station that includes all the best features of these devices. Packaged in the rugged Pelican™ 1430 case and incor-porating its own power supply and charger, this pump will keep you sampling in the field all day long. Tel: 905-238-5242, Fax: 905-238-5704E-mail: [email protected]: www.waterra.com
Peristaltic pumps
November/December 2014 | 71 www.esemag.com
ES&E NEWSoe, Ontario. The technology, which was
featured in ES&E’s May 2013 issue,
uses stabilized hydrogen peroxide as an
alternative to chlorine-based water dis-
infection methods.
For all projects, visit: clean50.com/
top15-projects-2015
WEFTEC 2014 sets new record
Over 1,000 exhibitors filled the nearly
mile long exhibition hall in New Orleans
during WEFTEC 2014. A trolley service
ran during the show, ferrying attendees
and delegates around the 300,000 ft2.
Author and professor, Luke Williams,
from the Berkley Center for Entrepre-
neurship & Innovation at New York Uni-
versity, gave the keynote speech at the
opening general session. He encouraged
water professionals to adopt a noncon-
ventional approach to innovation leader-
ship, embracing what seem to be coun-
terintuitive solutions to problems.
Attendees were encouraged to learn
from the past but focus on the future
during the Great Water Cities Session.
Featuring opening remarks from EPA
Administrator Gina McCarthy, the panel
of water leaders from France, New Zea-
land, and New York shared examples of
how their cities are coping with natural
disasters, extreme weather events, and
future growth.
Co-located with WEFTEC was the
Stormwater Congress, which covered
pressing stormwater issues in four con-
current sessions and featured over 70
speakers.
Teams competing in the Operations
Challenge came from across North
America, with two teams from Ontario,
the OCWA Jets and the Sludge Ham-
mers representing Canada. Team Ter-
minal Velocity from the Virginia Water
Environment Association placed first
in Division I, continuing their winning
streak with a fifth consecutive title.
Next year’s show will be held in Chi-
cago, Illinois.
www.wef.org
Canada a global mining leader
During the 2014 Northwind Mining
Invitational Forum, the Canadian gov-
ernment highlighted its national and
continued overleaf...
High Pressure Water Jetting
Liquid/Dry Vacuum Services
Dry Ice Cleaning
Hydro Vac Excavating www.aquablast.ca
Markham, ON 905-747-8506
Vancouver, BC 604-251-5722
Edmonton, AB 780-455-4300
[email protected] www.bv.com
Email: [email protected] Web: www.cctatham.com
Collingwood Bracebridge Orillia Barrie
Specialists in a comprehensive range of Municipal, Environmental, Structural, Building, Water Resources, Transportation
and Municipal Engineering
35 YEARS DREDGINGHIGH SPEED CENTRIFUGES
HIGH VOLUME PUMPING-HDPE PIPEHDPE PIPELINE FUSING GEO TUBE DEWATERING
Competent and Complete ServicesLagoons, Digesters, Ponds, Lakes, Marinas, Waste
Reduction, Municipal & IndustrialTel: (506) 684-5821 | Fax (506) 684-1915 | www.girouxinc.com
November/December 2014 | 73 www.esemag.com
tools and innovative technologies that the
research uncovered to help water utilities
across Australia manage odour and cor-
rosion issues within sewer systems.
It was conducted in conjunction with
an ongoing Water Environment Re-
search Foundation (WERF) ventilation
research program, and remains the larg-
est, worldwide research project focused
on sewer corrosion and odour.
The project has helped utilities save
hundreds of millions of dollars by maxi-
mizing the service life of sewer networks
in a proactive approach, by providing
utilities with a better understanding of
in-sewer processes that lead to sewer cor-
rosion and odour issues.
Canada to invest millions in fisheries water
infrastructureThe Government of Canada is pro-
viding $34.2 million over five years to
upgrade and renew salmon hatcheries
and spawning channels operated by the
federal government under the Salmonid
Enhancement Program.
This funding includes $13.8 million
to refurbish crucial water supply and
delivery systems at all 16 major salmon
hatcheries and many spawning chan-
nels, and $20.4 million to modernize
and refurbish aging infrastructure at
Bella Coola’s Snootli Creek Hatchery,
which serves the British Columbia cen-
tral coast.
The investments will renew infra-
structure that is, in many cases, 30 years
old. The work includes redeveloping
wells and installing new wells; repairing
and replacing water pumps; improving
water and energy efficiency; repairing
and replacing water valves, pipes and
water intake structures; and upgrading
monitoring systems. A reliable supply of
high-quality water is a critical element to
the successful production of salmon at
hatcheries and spawning channels.
news.gc.ca
Support for tidal power generation
After a successful feasibility study,
tidal power company Water Wall Tur-
bine has been selected to receive an ad-
ditional $1.5 million in funding through
the Clean Energy Fund.
ES&E NEWS
continued overleaf...
Engineers and Environmental Consultants
1-800-265-9662 www.rjburnside.com
E N V I R O N M E N T A L
10 Alden RoadMarkham, Ontario Canada L3R 2S1Tel: 905-475-1545Fax: 905-475-2021www.napier-reid.com
Package Water Treatment Plants/Gravity/Pressure/Membrane/Ion Exchange/GAC
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine
ES&E NEWSThe Dent Island Tidal Power Gener-
ation Project involves an anchored float-
ing structure with a large slow-turning
turbine producing an expected 500-kW.
The scalable technology is almost twice
as efficient at energy extraction, com-
pared to a conventional propeller tur-
bine. According to Water Wall Turbine,
a single unit can extract up to 10 mW
from fast currents.
Under the ecoENERGY Innovation
Initiative, the Government of Canada
has already invested $300,000 to help
with the engineering and design require-
ments of the project.
Water Wall Turbine said it will be
first launching the turbine in Vancouver
in early 2015.
Waterfront Toronto to be North America’s largest
green building undertakingAt four times the size of Monaco,
the $4.4 billion, 1,977-acre, 40,000-res-
idence Toronto waterfront revitalization
project is intended to position the city
and province of Ontario as world lead-
ers in creating sustainable communities.
“Ontario has Canada’s greatest con-
centration of environmental and clean-
technology companies,” says Sean
Dyke, director, Southwestern Ontario
Marketing Alliance, and chair of OCTA.
According to the 2014 Canadian Clean
Technology Industry Report, 35 per cent
of clean-tech companies in Canada are
located in Ontario. It also generates 37
per cent of Canada’s GDP and is home
to nearly 50 per cent of all employees
in high-tech and knowledge-intensive
industries.
Waterfront Toronto’s Minimum Green
Building Requirements mandate high
performance buildings and technologies.
They include criteria such as on-site ener-
gy generation, water conservation, electric
vehicle infrastructure and bicycle storage
and parking.
Endress+Hauser and SPD Sales announce
partnershipSPD Sales Ltd. will now promote
Endress+Hauser products and services
within the municipal water/wastewater
market in southern Ontario.
This agreement builds on the success
both companies have experienced in this
market and will draw on synergies in-
herent between the two.
The partnership will provide en-
hanced coverage, proven technolo-
gies and combined capabilities. En-
dress+Hauser is the largest independent
manufacturer of instrumentation in the
world, with global manufacturing facili-
ties and over 12,000 associates.
SPD Sales Ltd. predominantly serves
southern Ontario. Customers outside
this region can continue to contact En-
dress+Hauser for eastern Ontario sales,
and Synergy Controls for northern On-
tario sales.
www.ca.endress.com
Ad
ve
rtis
er
IND
EX Company Page
ACG Technology ................................. 75
American Public University ................. 33
Associated Engineering ........................ 5
CALA ..................................................... 60
Chemline Plastics ................................ 50
CIMA Canada ....................................... 48
Denso .................................................. 12
Endress + Hauser ................................ 11
Engineered Pump................................. 22
Envirocan ........................................... 75
Greatario ........................................ 55, 60
H2Flow ................................................ 48
Hoskin Scientific ............................ 35, 51
Huber Technology .................................. 9
Hydro International .............................. 40
Indachem Inc. ...................................... 17
KG Services .......................................... 76
KSB Pumps .......................................... 41
Kusters Water ...................................... 37
Mantech .............................................. 28
Master Meter ........................................ 3
MSU Mississauga ................................ 21
Osprey Scientific .................................. 27
Parsons ................................................ 44
Pro Aqua............................................... 15
ProMinent ............................................... 2
Schneider Electric................................ 13
SEW-Eurodrive ..................................... 27
Smith & Loveless ................................. 39
Spill Management ................................ 53
Stantec ................................................. 43
Tank Connection .................................. 59
URS Canada ......................................... 46
USF Fabrication .................................... 22
VL Motion Systems Inc. ....................... 28
Waterloo Biofilter Systems .................. 50
Waterra Pumps .................. 19, 25, 31, 36
XCG Consultants .................................. 43
Xylem ..................................................... 7
74 | November/December 2014
www.envirocan.cawww.acgtechnology.com
22 mm 15 mmHydrINS 2
MiniHydrINS
• Several Thousand InsertionMagmeters Sold Worldwide
• High accuracy and repeatabilityeven on low velocities
• Ideal for DMA flowmeasurement work
• Bi-directional flow measurement
• Installation under pressurethrough a hot tap
• Easy to remove and calibrate
• Up to 10 year battery life
www.hydreka.com
INSERTIONMAGNETIC FLOWMETER
UNMATCHED LOWFLOW ACCURACY
CALL 905.856.1414 • 131 Whitmore Rd., Unit 13, Woodbridge, ON L4L 6E4 Ontario Pollution Control Equipment Association
Available for sales and rental
Spill Response
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Any spill, anywhere,anytime!• 24 / 7 – 365 days a year response.
• Excavating services, haulage, disposal,demolition, restoration and clean up.
• Above and below ground fuel tank removal.
• Licensed by the MOE and TSSA.
Spill Response
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General Contracting
Toll Free: 855-378-3015Fax: 888.245.5220
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