WCW24

Aquatera Utilities Inc.'s Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is a major facility providing wastewater treatment services to the Grande Prairie region, covering the City of Grande Prairie and surrounding communities. The current treatment process includes primary sedimentation, biological treatment with a modified Johannesburg process, and secondary clarification. The plant has equalization basins both upstream and downstream of the treatment plant, where Aquatera makes use of these basins to equalize flow prior to treatment, and downstream of the WWTP prior to discharge to the Wapiti River; this project component is critical as further outlined below. Based on regulatory drivers, the WWTP is to implement disinfection to meet an effluent quality of 100 CFU/100 mL fecal coliforms (monthly average) prior to discharge. The project goal includes the design and implementation of a new disinfection system with a treatment capacity of 65 MLD. The project is unique in that both final effluent from the secondary clarifier, as well as gravity discharge from Aquatera's final effluent lagoon, are to be used as the influent feed into the new UV disinfection facility. This provides Aquatera with flexibility in operation of their plant. Currently, the project is in the detailed design phase, with construction scheduled to begin in Fall 2024 and construction completion by August 2025. Stantec conducted a thorough review of various disinfection technologies and ultimately recommended utilizing open channel UV disinfection due to its lowest net present value and proven reliability with lower operational and maintenance requirements. Following the technology selection, Stantec collaborated with Aquatera to further assess potential locations and configurations at the existing WWTP site. Multiple hydraulic analyses were conducted to ensure the design address the limitations in the plant's pumping and conveyance system; this included maintaining flexibility in terms of diverting flow to and from the final effluent lagoon. Additionally, a life cycle cost analysis was provided to assist Aquatera in selecting an option aligned with their satisfaction. Stantec has recently finalized the preliminary design and is now working with Aquatera through the detailed design stages. This presentation will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various disinfection options considered, the selection criteria for UV systems, design considerations for tie-in requirements, and the operational strategy for UV disinfection.

The average North American has the opportunity to spend an additional 4.5 hours a week in happiness and productivity.  Learn how in this Life Engineering session.  (Want to know what Life Engineering is? Come to find out!)

Cityscapes were initially designed around a purpose and in the case of Winnipeg, it was being a hub for commerce and distribution. While practical for the time it was built, this design neglected natural processes from the beginning and the issues with these oversights will only grow overtime. Concrete environment - while an excellent medium for building foundations - are not what would be considered ideal for stormwater management and as such, require plenty of catch basins, piping and maintenance all to plan ahead for the 100-year flood event. Soil as Infrastructure for Stormwater Retention, Detention and Water Quality will detail an approach using soil cells to allow for an uncompacted soil beneath concrete to be utilized for stormwater management. This approach involves placing support structures underneath concrete where there typically would be a 95 Proctor compacted aggregate used to support the hardscapes in urban landscapes. These structures provide a 90% void space that can be filled with uncompaced soil, allow for utilities to run through them rather than underneath and can hold a firetruck on top of them to allow for the typical loading the compacted medium under concrete may need to endure. The pore space of uncompacted soil allows for stormwater to remain inside the urban environment, acting as an additional layer of flood mitigation where it would normally be considered a hazard. This water can then be utilized for social infrastructure - namely, growing large mature trees - which add to stormwater mitigation through interception in their large canopies, enrich the surrounding environment and create more desirable and prestigious landscapes. These projects include blocks on Broadway and Selkirk Mainstreet, two of the earliest developments in Manitoba's history as a trading hub. With several projects around Manitoba already constructed or currently scheduled, soil cells are already demonstrating effects when it comes to flood mitigation, peak flow reduction and water quality. An area of potential for this technology for this approach would be using it to reduce the size of detention ponds suburban developments. This would allow for new developments to make full use of the land or to substitute in some other feature.

There has been a proliferation of IoT (Internet of Things) devices that are used by municipalities to collect data from Collections Systems, including data from Pump Stations, flow meters, level meters and rain gauges. Integrating this Collection System data with data from numerous other sources is part of the desire by Municipalities to create “Smart” Cities, but that integration has proved to be a daunting task. This presentation will therefore focus on what is available and can be done today, to collect flow/level/rain data, then send it to a cloud-environment where it can be analyzed, which leads to informed decisions, whether on a near-real time basis for operational control, or for more long-term planning by engineers for infrastructure decisions. Topics discussed will include: - Goal of “Smart” Cities, and obstacles to date. - Current monitoring technologies for Flow, Level and Rain meters. - Data collection methods. - Cloud-based software platforms for Data Storage, Analysis and Machine Learning applications. - Sharing data with other software platforms via the use of API's and other transfer methods. - Uses of Collections Systems flow, level and rain data for Operations and for Engineering.

Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) causes severe problems in wastewater collection and treatment plants. Equipment corrosion, odor complaints, and operator/public safety are some of the issues routinely encountered with H2S. Chemical dosing is typically used to control H2S, but to better manage facilities and optimize mitigation practices, utilities need more information to understand how H2S behaves throughout the sewer networks and facilities over time. New H2S sensor technologies enable operators to continuously measure H2S in both liquid and gas phases in collections systems and treatment plants. Through their installation, they give a complete and dynamic overview of H2S impacts, providing a path to proactive and data-driven approaches to H2S management. Trends and trouble-spots can be identified before they become problems. The result of this is optimized chemical dosing, minimized odor complaints, prevention of equipment corrosion and premature equipment failure, and protection operator and public safety. These probes are robust, C1D1 rated, and can operate in remote locations. They are easily cleaned, maintained, and calibrated. Importantly, their successful operation has been proven with multiple case studies documenting their efficacy.

Odour and corrosion are long-standing concerns for all municipal collection systems. If a utility is not receiving any odour complaints, then there is a tendency to think that everything is good. Unfortunately, this is not always the case as even low levels of untreated hydrogen sulphide in a collection system are a human safety problem and can lead to corrosion concerns. In this presentation we will present the background information that all operators need to understand why odours are generated in a collection system, why they are a problem and how we can best treat the odours. In addition, we will discuss how untreated odours can lead to corrosion and how we can monitor the collection system to understand the source and magnitude of the problem. The first portion of the presentation will focus on the background theory of what is happening in a collection system to create untreated hydrogen sulphide. This is material that all operators are already likely to be familiar with, but we will provide a complete A-to-Z of collection systems showing the causes of odour generation and all options available to treat these odours. The second portion of the presentation will work through specific case studies from at least two collection systems in Alberta and BC, providing the details of the comprehensive monitoring and treatment programs that are in place at these systems.

In the Spring of 2023, Lethbridge County partnered with Hydrasurvey Ltd. to formulate a comprehensive Lagoon Management Strategy, a sophisticated approach to Risk Management planning of their Wastewater Lagoons. Like many counties, Lethbridge faces the challenging responsibility of managing and upgrading critical infrastructure within constrained budgets. To effectively allocate resources, proactive planning and budgeting for projects is essential. Unlike some types of infrastructure that can be visually assessed and inspected more easily, Wastewater Lagoons present a unique challenge. Being bodies of water, problems often manifest beneath the surface, making it difficult to predict when issues will arise. To pre-emptively address significant problems in their Wastewater Lagoons, Lethbridge County engaged Hydrasurvey to conduct Bathymetric Sludge Surveys on four lagoons in April 2023. These surveys employed the latest RTK GPS mapping technology, single-beam sonar for sludge thickness mapping, manual liner measurements, and sludge sampling to determine disposal criteria. This information was presented in a comprehensive report incorporating a detailed Lagoon Management Strategy. This strategy systematically outlines the dredging and desludging priorities for each cell by ranking the lagoon's capacity occupied by sludge, estimated dry tonnes, dredgeable sludge volumes, and disposal criteria. Armed with this information, Lethbridge County was able to solicit accurate and comparable budgets from dredging contractors, specifying the volume of sludge to be dredged. The strategy also facilitates verification of completed dredging through post dredge surveys. This proactive approach, coupled with the detailed insights gained through the Bathymetric Sludge Surveys, empowers Lethbridge County to navigate infrastructure challenges with heightened efficiency and fiscal responsibility. By addressing potential issues before they escalate, the county is better positioned to make informed decisions, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall infrastructure management.

Rossdale and E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) provide drinking water to the City of Edmonton and surrounding areas and are operated by EPCOR Water Services Inc. (EPCOR). These plants are critical infrastructure identified as vulnerable to overland flood damage from the adjacent North Saskatchewan River. Stantec Consulting Ltd. (Stantec) was commissioned in 2020 to quantify the flood risk further and undertake the preliminary design of flood mitigation measures at both WTP sites. The project is now in the detailed design phase, with construction scheduled to commence in Summer 2024. The design consists of a combination of earthen embankments and cast-in-place concrete floodwalls at each site that meets the design basis of a 1:500-year river flood plus 1.0 m of freeboard. Temporary flood control measures also form part of the design at Rossdale WTP. The flood mitigation infrastructure is designed following the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) standards. Several supporting studies and investigations were required to support the design phase. These included geotechnical soil sampling, non-intrusive geophysical investigation, hydrotechnical analysis of the river, stormwater and civil grading design, underground utility review, waste stream mitigations, landscape architecture design, and regulatory approval planning. The design considers ground conditions, groundwater seepage, underground infrastructure, and floodwater erosion potential. It also adapts to local constraints such as minimizing tree removals, reducing total wall height, and maintaining a naturalized aesthetic to match its river valley setting while still meeting the appropriate design standards. Each WTP site presented unique challenges to the design team. Rossdale WTP is situated centrally within the City of Edmonton and bordered by a residential neighborhood, the river, the historic Rossdale Generating Station, and RE/MAX® Field. Each bordering stakeholder required specific attention to minimize the impacts of the project. Rossdale WTP has been an operational facility since the early 1900s, which presented challenges with existing underground infrastructure and space constraints. E.L. Smith WTP is a more straightforward site than Rossdale WTP; however, a specific challenge was the river's proximity to critical infrastructure. A complex structural design was required to situate a floodwall between existing buildings and the river. The project uses a Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) delivery approach, with Graham Infrastructure LP as the construction contractor. This approach allowed for greater collaboration and enhanced the design process by having regular feedback on constructability, schedule, and cost. The CMAR team also adopted the practice of regularly meeting in a dedicated boardroom at Stantec's office to work closely together and develop a sense of mutual ambition to deliver the project successfully.

Lagoons are common for wastewater treatment in smaller-sized municipalities. Over time, lagoons accumulate sludge that must be cleaned out to maintain storage capacity, reduce odours and meet effluent compliance. The cost of cleaning out lagoons can be high and varies widely depending on the size of the lagoon, the amount of sludge and the options available for beneficial reuse or disposal of the sludge. A high cost of cleaning lagoons can often be a barrier for undertaking this important maintenance procedure. Some options for cleaning out sludge include dewatering lagoons and removing sludge with heavy equipment, dredging sludge with barges, and using lagoon crawlers that drive into lagoons and pump out sludge. A relatively new approach is bioaugmentation of lagoons with microbes that accelerate degradation of sludge in situ. Bioaugmentation is not capital intensive and has been used successfully in other jurisdictions. However, it has not been used extensively in Ontario. Bioaugmentation products are typically proprietary, and the suppliers claim successful use of these products to reduce sludge, Fats Oils and Grease (FOG) and when adding in a collection system, raw sewage loadings. The Town of Bruce Mines and the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) partnered to trial bioaugmentation in the Town's sewage lagoons as the lagoons required sludge removal and the Town had limited capital funds for the work. The key questions the trial set out to answer is whether bioaugmentation would work in a cold climate, and how much sludge could be removed by bioaugmentation. The results of this study showed bioaugmentation could be an approach to remove sludge from lagoons in situ at a lower cost than traditional methods. In this case study, the results of bioaugmentation exceeded expectations. After one-year of bioaugmentation show a sludge reduction of 6,849 m3, which is a 56% overall reduction across the two cells. Reduction was not equal in the two cells as there was a 40% reduction in cell #1 and 64% reduction in cell #2.

This presentation will focus on a new collaborative development process for one of the largest infrastructure projects in North America - City of Houston Northeast Water Purification Plant Upgrade (https://www.houstonpublicworks.org/northeast-water-purification-plant-expansion-project). The challenge was to create a SCADA integration environment among friendly competitors. The revolutionary concept evolved significantly to respond to the challenges of COVID-19. The development partnership involved several consulting/engineering companies including two of the largest in the US as well as major system integrator. Capabilities included the creation of a real time, online, centralized configuration environment for numerous decentralized offices including work-at home. The breakthrough approach has now been adopted as standard practice by at least one of the primary consultants!

The City of Portage la Prairie, Water Treatment Plant supplies an average of 24 million litres per day to the City of Portage, three regional water systems, and to several local large food processing industries. Raw water is obtained from the Portage Reservoir, which is a small water impoundment on the Assiniboine River. This impoundment was created from the construction of a dam control structure on the Assiniboine River, which connects with the Red River in Winnipeg; and the creation of a flood control spillway structure named the Assiniboine River Diversion which directs water, in times of flood, into a man-made diversion channel running to Lake Manitoba. During the spring melt in 2023 the Assiniboine River provided the City of Portage la Prairie, Water Treatment Plant with a "perfect storm" of issues arising from its raw water intake. These problems reduced the volume of water available for treatment in the facility and resulted in temporary water curtailments for local industry. This session will detail from an operations perspective what the conditions were that led to this previously unseen problem, how the conditions affected the plant and distribution system, and how the facility's resilient staff overcame them. The presentation will conclude with a brief summary of future construction plans for the facility, highlighting the new intake structure.

Many communities have either SSS or CSS, which collect stormwater and I/I in addition to sanitary and industrial wastewater discharges. This type of collection system frequently results in the flow capacity of the sewers being exceeded during wet weather events. When the flow capacity of these sewer systems is exceeded it results in sewer surcharging and frequent discharges of wastewater overflowing from the SSS or CSS systems into adjacent streams. Solutions to resolve this problem have included separation of combined sewer systems, transporting wet weather flows in excess of the existing combined sewer system capacity to a storage facility for subsequent treatment at a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), transporting the excess wet weather flow to the WWTP after expanding its peak flow capacity, or transporting the excess weather flow to a combined sewer overflow (CSO) treatment facility located either at a WWTP or remotely in the collection system. This presentation will review viable technologies for expanding biological capacity with advanced primary treatment and wet weather treatment. Pile cloth media filtration (PCMF) is now being used in a wide range of primary and wet weather conditions within treatment facilities or in the network (overflow sites). The application of PCMF for advanced primary and wet weather treatment has been applied on a range of influent solids conditions from primary influent, primary clarified effluent and combined secondary clarified effluent with the primary influent or primary clarifier effluent. The ability to handle the range of influent conditions allows the technology to be placed in multiple locations within a treatment facility or at remote overflow sites. Also, PCMF is being used in dual treatment applications providing value to a facility across a range of operating conditions. PCMF achieves very high solids removal without chemical addition. The removal efficiency is typically greater than 80% of TSS, with applications demonstrating removal in excess of 90%. This high removal of TSS is also achieved in a very small footprint which is typically 15 to 20% of primary clarification for comparison purposes. The high removal efficiency allows more capacity to be achieved through biological treatment train if used to replace primary clarifiers. This allows more wet weather flows to be treated through the main treatment train. For wet weather only treatment, the technology is being used in auxiliary side-stream treatment trains or in dual use application of tertiary treatment and wet weather flow treatment. The technology spotlight will focus on the many of the projects that are operating or in design. The areas to be covered will be the following: - The performance from operating installations and testing conducted for facilities under construction and/or design for advanced primary and wet weather treatment - Space requirements based on influent condition - Influent water quality and flow information needed for the design of a wet weather system - Handling of waste solids removed during treatment - Automation requirements for wet weather treatment to minimize operator attention - Instantaneous startup capabilities - General operating costs In summary, the technology spotlight will show how the technology of PCMF can be applied in multiple locations within a treatment facility or remote overflow site to help a utility to achieve the following: - Expansion of an existing biological treatment train capacity - Meet facility permit requirements (water quality) - Eliminate untreated wet weather flows

John D'Or Prairie is the administrative center of Little Red River Cree Nation, located 125 km east of High Level, Alberta. The community Water Treatment Plant was completed in 2019. After a few years of operation, the existing groundwater supply wells were not achieving the anticipated yield, requiring supplementation from seasonally available surface water sources to keep up with peak raw water demands. This situation was escalated to an emergency in May 2023 when the Paskwa Wildfire (HWF-030) displaced approximately 1,700 persons from the neighbouring community of Fox Lake to John D'Or Prairie. To mitigate the risk of a raw water shortage, a permanent raw watermain to the Peace River was implemented, with temporary pumping measures over the winter of 2023-2024 and plans for a future permanent intake structure. The design and construction of the ~15-km watermain was completed in a timeline of less than 6 months. Other key elements of the project included upgrading the existing WTP membrane system to allow for the increased demand and switch from a groundwater raw water source to a surface water source and conversion of the process waste cell to a raw water storage cell. Unique considerations had to be made at the design and administration stages of this project to account for the remote work location and emergency basis of the project.

Berens River First Nation (BRFN), located on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, faces significant challenges in providing adequate water and wastewater services to its growing population. Currently, only a portion of the community has access to piped water and wastewater services, while the rest rely on trucked services. Moreover, the old water treatment plant, constructed in 1998, was struggling to meet the demands of the community, leading to concerns over water quality and system capacity. This presentation will outline the project, beginning with the findings of a comprehensive feasibility study conducted in 2020, which assessed the current state of BRFN's water and wastewater infrastructure and projected future needs based on population growth estimates. The study revealed critical deficiencies in the existing water treatment system, including inadequate treatment capacity, deteriorating infrastructure, and challenges in maintaining water quality standards. Key areas of concern identified include the limited capacity of the treatment plant to meet peak demand, resulting in reduced treatment rates and compromised water quality. Additionally, the raw water quality poses challenges, with elevated levels of colour, turbidity, total coliforms, and iron, requiring improved treatment processes. The presentation will then discuss proposed solutions to address these challenges, including upgrades to the water treatment plant, expansion of distribution networks, and improvements in raw water intake and storage facilities. Furthermore, challenges related to meeting regulatory requirements for treated water will be discussed. Throughout the pre-design work, water quality parameters varied substantially which posed a challenge in determining the optimal water treatment system for the community. Several options were considered, including Ion Exchange, Dissolved Air Flotation, Granular Activated Carbon filters, and Two Stage Membrane systems. The selected treatment system changed from Ion Exchange followed by Membrane Filtration to a Two Stage Membrane system during the pre-design phase after more extensive water sampling was completed. Other challenges to the project included maintaining operation of the existing distribution and treatment system, working in a remote community, and working in cold weather. Through this case study, attendees will gain insights into the complexities of managing water infrastructure in remote Indigenous communities and the importance of sustainable solutions to ensure access to safe and reliable water resources for future generations.