Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine (ESEMAG) November 1997 by Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine

ENVIRONMENTA

Science & Engineering Focussing on industrial/municipal wastewaters- hazardous wastes - air pollution & drinking water treatment

Canada's top award-winning environmental magazine

November 1997

'ncludinq.'^

CAM& uf Laos.

fkfntU

Canada's consulting engineers face radical changes

Did Pax Verdis picket when Wren was building St. Paul's?

Ontario defines biosolids stabilization criteria

Reducing aluminum levels in drinking water Modelling evaluates chemical landfill impact Residential backflow prevention

Zenon Membrane

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ISSN-0835-605X

CONTENTS

October/November'97 Vol. 10 No.5

issued November,1997

President STEVE DAVEY Publisher TOKI DAVEY

Managing Editor SANDRA DAVEY Sales Manager PENNY DAVEY (905) 727-4666 Sales Representative DENISE SIMPSON Circulation Manager VIRGINIA MEYER

Did Pax Verdls picket when Wren was buiiding St. Paul's? Editorial by Tom Davey

Two lake lungs will protect Richmond Hill's Lake Wilcox

The reduction of aluminum in drinking water-a study

Selecting gas detectors for confined space entry

Science, risk and realities

Technical Advisory Board

Joint project defines sewage biosolids stabilization criteria

Robert B. Baker, M.A.Sc., P.Eng.

Four steps to treatment plant confidence

Uniroyal Chemical's remediation project meets or exceeds expectations Power to the people from the water wheel

42 44

How they treat road runoff'Down Under'

Rolls-Royce turbine system wins environmental award

Recycling household paint in PEI

Publisher's Asst. KATHLEEN CARIGNAN

Totten Sims Hubicki Associates

Jim Bishop Beak International Inc.

Alan Church, C.Chem., QEP. Church & Trought Inc.

George V. Crawford, P.Eng., M.A.Sc. CH2M G&S Dr. Howard Goodfellow Goodfellow Consultants Ltd.

Rod Holme, P.Eng. Proctor & Redfern Ltd.

Don Kemp, M.A.Sc., P.Eng. MacViro Consultants

Peter Laughton, M.Eng., P.Eng., DEE R.V. Anderson Associates

Barry Loescher, Ph.D. Philip Analytical Environmental Science & Engineering is a bi-monthly business publication pub lished by Environmental Science & Engi neering Publications Inc. An all Canadian publication, ES&E provides authoritative editorial coverage of Canada's municipal and industrial environmental control sys tems and drinking water treatment and dis tribution.

ES&E's readers include consulting engi neers, industrial plant managers and en gineers, key provincial and federal envi ronmental officials, water and wastewater treatment plant operators and contractors. Canadian Publications Mall Sales

Product Agreement No. 18197 Second Class Mall

Waste management strategy includes user pay by 2001

Governments strengthen controls on methyl bromide and iliegai CFC trade

Modelling evaluates chemical landfill Impact

Fixaflor Equllibre regenerates natural balance of polluted lakes and ponds

Residential backflow prevention begins at user connection

Consultants' Forum A personal commentary on Consulting Engineering 1947-1997

Life cycle costs - The true cost of Infrastructure

The changing environmental consulting engineering profession

Water supply and sewerage plans being developed for the Galapagos Islands

Registration No. 7750 Printed in Canada, by Web Offset Publi cations Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without writ ten permission of the publisher. Yearly subscription rates: Canada $45.00 for one year. (G.S.T. extra) All advertising space orders, copy, art work, film, proofs, etc., should be sent to: Environmental Science & Engi neering, 220 Industrial Pkwy. S., Unit 30, Aurora, Ontario, Canada, L4G 3V6, Tel: (905)727-4666, Fax:(905) 841-7271, E-mail: esemag@lstar.ca. Web site: http://www.esemag.com

Departments

Literature Reviews

48,57

Ad Index

Product Review

58-61

Classifieds

R&D News

50-55

Datepad Industry Update

16 12-18

Reader Feedback

Reader Service Card

17,56

Cover story: The ancient water wheel concept can be used to bring eiectricai power to isolated communities. See story on page 44. in direct contrast, the insetshows the award-winning Roils Royce turbine which has very low emissions that dramatically cut NOx and carbon monoxide levels. See story on page 49. Information presented in ES&E is collected from a variety of sources presumed to be accurate and complete. ES&E cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information presented. Readers are encouraged to contact authors, agencies and companies directly for verification and/or clarification. Material In ES&E only conveys information and should not be considered as legal or professional advice. Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Industry Update Montreal conference

ÂŁS<&E President becomes WEF Director

highlights

"â&#x2013; fsat"""""'!

The environmental and economic ben efits of biomass as a source of renew

able energy were confirmed during the Third Biomass Conference of the Americas which was held in Montreal

in August. In a presentation comparing the cost of bioenergy to coal-produced electric ity, the two were found to be competi

tive when the so-called "external costs"

of power production are considered. Externalities include the estimated en

vironmental, social and health costs of

air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, fertilizer use, occupational hazards, employment potential and energy diver sity and security. A case study conducted by Ultrecht University in the Netherlands, used a scenario of comparing biomass power and coal-generated electricity in the Netherlands in the year 2005. The study found that without extemalities in the

equation, the estimated cost of biomass power is substantially higher than that of coal: seven cents per kilowatt hour (kWh)compared to four cents. Includ ing external costs brings the two sources of power almost equal; 5.3 to 7 cents per kWh for biomass; 4.5 to 7.2 cents per kWh for coal-generated electricity. The feedstock studied as the source

of biomass was willow trees grown in the Netherlands. The country's coal is imported.

Loss of trees means high stormwater costs

A study released by the national con servation group American Forests found that a 20 percent loss of trees and other vegetation in the Atlanta metropolitan region produced a one billion-cubic foot increase in stormwater runoff. It esti

mated that it would cost at least $2 bil lion to build containment facilities ca

pable of storing the excess water. Between 1986 and 1993, the dis

placement of trees by development caused stormwater runoff to increase on

a net total of approximately 500,000 acres. That number would have been

higher had it not been for improved tree cover that decreased runoff on approxi mately 300,000 acres. Natural elements of the landscape, such as trees and veg etation, slow the movement of storm water,lower the total runoff volume,and

reduce costly flooding. "We found that removing natural vegetation and replacing it with man-

ES&E President, Steve Davey (right) has begun serving a three year term as a Director of the Washington based Water Environment Federation (WEF). Steve, a Past President of the Water Environment Association of Ontario, accepted an award from WEF President Phiiip Gerwert on behaif of WEAO. He has won two awards for his environmentai journalism. made structures has a high cost. That makes a strong argument for incorpo rating natural systems into the decisionmaking process and finding new ways to build cities," said Gary Moll, vice president for urban forestry at Ameri can Forests and study coordinator. The study used engineering formu las developed by the Natural Resource

brane filtration. By using existing tanks and buildings, savings for the District of Powell River were between $3 and $5 million.

Hill, Murray has pioneered the idea of fixed-cost construction that meets

stormwater volume for a two-year, 24hour storm event. The cost of building stormwater retention ponds ranges from

specific performance standards. The fixed cost includes the design and build ing of the facility as well as a written guarantee that the plant will comply with environmental regulations both now and in the future. The plant can he expanded to accommodate increased sewage vol

$0.17 to $17.00 per cubic foot. Ameri

umes in the future as and when needed.

can Forests researchers based their cal

This just-in-time concept of future upgrades means that capital costs for new equipment can be spread over a number of years and the impact on the taxpayer is minimized.

Conservation Service to calculate the

culations on a conservative figure of $2.00.

Unique upgrade to Powell River plant A $4.95 million upgrade of the Powell

Drawing a bead on lead shot

River District's sewage treatment plant should put the community on the lead ing edge of water reclamation. The Westview Water Reclamation Facility, being designed and built by Victoriabased Hill, Murray and Associates Inc., is the largest of its kind in British Co

The federal government recently amended the Migratory Birds Regula

lumbia.

The conventional sewage treatment plant in the harbour of Powell River was considered an eyesore by many, pro duced strong odours, and stmggled to meet environmental regulations. Hill, MuiTay proposed an affordable solution - a patented ZenoGem system that com bines biological treatment with mem

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

tions to ban the use of lead shot for hunt

ing most migratory game birds in wetland areas. Effective September 1, 1997, hunters are required to use only non-toxic shot for hunting waterfowl and most other migratory game birds in areas within 200 metres of any water course or water body. Existing non-toxic shot zones remain in effect. Currently, approved alterna tives to lead shot are steel, bismuth,

tungsten-iron and tungsten-polymer. Starting on September 1, 1999, the ban will apply in all areas of the country.

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Editorial Comment

By Tom Davey

Did Pax Verdis picket when Wren was buiiding St. Paui's? Act I - The PVC scenario

Greenpeace threatens to disrupt

r r" <

construction of London's Millennium

Dome calling it a "poisonous project" because polyvinyl chloride was specified for the roof. Lord Melchett, executive director of Greenpeace, wrote to Peter Mandelson, UK

minister in charge of the project, warning him that "very, very deter mined efforts will be made to stop its construction".

Readers may recall that Lord Melchett also played a key role in stopping the Shell oil storage rig Brent Spar from being dumped deep into the North Atlantic. Later, the noble lord

had to apologize, saying the measure ments Greenpeace had made aboard the rig had been taken from a blocked pipe. Naturally, this led to a gross exaggeration of the oil remaining in the Brent Spar. In spite of this, the Greenpeace

St. Paul's Cathedral, Wren's masterpiece. The area Is rich In history. James Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Dickens and O.K. Chesterton are only a few of the literary giants who knew the area; Dr. Johnson wrote his famous dictionary nearby.

to head off confrontation. Tony Blair, Britain's highly popular Prime Minis

newspapers with offices in Canary

TV clips of activists' helicopters being fended off the Brent Spar with water

ter, intervened to save the Dome.

greenmail by E-mail? Act III - Back to the past

cannon - the scene redolent of James

Minister Blair that the Dome was a

Bond movies - a media blitz of global proportions erupted. Europe was in uproar with heated words between the

"toxic, plastic, throwaway monster".

action was successful. After dramatic

then British Prime Minister John

Major and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Mass protests followed until Shell capitulated and the disposal project for the rig was abandoned. John Major called Shell a wimp for giving in to Greenpeace. But the environmental problem remained unsolved.

Lord Melchett wrote to Prime

Wharf. Was this a little hint of

We must flash back three centuries

Heritage Secretary, that PVC is "one of the most environmentally damaging building materials it is possible to find". Greenpeace claims that the

to 1672 when Sir Christopher Wren was building St. Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of London, so vividly reported in the Diary of Samuel Pepys. Sir Christopher had been a precocious child with remarkable

material - 40 tonnes of which were

talents in mathematics and science.

designed to coat the Dome's 150,000 square metre roof- would give off highly poisonous dioxins and furans, both during manufacture and on disposal as waste. In fact dioxins

He invented several scientific devices

He warned Chris Smith, the National

as a teenager, which amazingly included pioneering anatomical and blood transfusion work, before being admitted to Oxford. After graduation, he later became a professor of as tronomy at Oxford. He was a found ing member and President of the Royal Society and his scientific work was highly regarded by Pascal and

Forgotten was the fact that more oil was burned by tugs hauling the huge oil rig hundreds of miles to a Norwe gian fiord than the residual oil in the rig. Consider the high energy use and subsequent air pollution involved in towing an ungainly oil rig which is more than twice the height of the clockface on Big Ben and twice as bulky as the famed clock tower. Hardly an environmentally benign

from North America's total annual

single entity but the indisputable fact is that there are some 200 types of dioxins, of which only 12 isomers are

in architecture until he became an

solution. But that was over three

considered to be toxic.

years ago.

Peter Mandelson, dubbed the Dome

The government was desperate to have the Dome completed on time so was politically vulnerable. Greenpeace reminded Alastair Campbell, the PM's press chief, that any disruption would

and Cambridge before visiting Paris to study French architecture. Influenced by the great Italian architect Giovanni

Secretary, met with Greenpeace to try

be in full view of seven national

Act II - Back to the future The British Government took the

Greenpeace "Dome" threats seriously.

PVC production are somewhat less than jrve grams. As for disposal, PVC is largely inert and certainly less toxic than many materials we routinely dispose of in landfills. Moreover, in this heated war of words, dioxin was mentioned as a

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Newton.

Until he was 29, this brilliant

polymath had displayed little interest assistant surveyor. He did design work for several structures in Oxford

Bernini, he in turn, influenced others,

probably Thomas Jefferson, where Virginia's College of William and Mary has its own"Wren Building."

Editorial Comment, cont'd. Within days of the Great Fire, Wren submitted a brilliant rebuilding plan,

survivors of the Great Fire.

which included 53 churches, and

centuries and the later firebombing of London in World War II. Appropri ately, Sir Christopher was buried inside his creation where portals proclaim this message: "Lector: Si monumentum requiris circumspice. Reader: if you seek his monument look about you." It might also be said of activists: "When seeking advice accompanied by veiled threats, first

urban planning which anticipated many features now in vogue. Property disputes probably prevented imple mentation of his planning schemes. St. Paul's, for example, lacks a spacious square which so enhances St. Peter's in Rome. Wren took 35 years to build St. Paul's, finishing it in 1711 when it was topped off by one of the largest domes in the world and covered, very effectively and artisti cally, with sheet lead. Indisputably, it

cancellation of a $16 million deal

about the combined power of Green peace and the media. But is Teflon really environmentally benign? When exposed to extremely high temperatures as in major fires, it may give off flourine fumes which are extremely toxic. The incident reminds me of King Pyrrhus, who won a great battle against the Romans but sustained such heavy losses he sorrowfully noted that another such 'victory' would finish him. The phrase pyrrhic victory entered the lexicon while the King is largely forgotten. Perhaps the Green peace victory was pyrrhic also. The taxpayers have already lost $4 million not to have a PVC Dome. Perhaps, like King Pyrrhus, the British public cannot afford any more such battles being 'won' on their behalf. Incidently, there is a set of two records - Greenpeace, The Rainbow

signed less than 12 weeks earlier. That Greenpeace has twice over-

$16.99. They are, ironically, 33 1/3

But the Cathedral survived both the

ask for some credentials."

Epilogue Since my return from England, the

remains one of the finest structures in

British Government has abandoned

Christendom.

the PVC Dome covering, opting instead to use glass fibre and Teflon. Activists are reportedly jubilant with the results of their protests. The German company, which was to make the Dome covering, is sueing for over $4 million in compensation for the

Looking at St. Paul's Dome mere weeks ago, I wondered if there were activists in the 1670s protesting against the use of lead on Wren's masterpiece. Was there a group. Pax Verdis, a Greenpeace of the 1700s, chanting slogans that, in the event of fire, molten lead could pour down on the congregation and surrounding population? Remember, this was a

Warrior - available in Toronto for

cathedral bom of fire so this issue, if

Ministers, the most recent with a

RPM 'vmy/'records; is this vinyl as in poly vinyl chloride? If so, it would be

raised, could have been tenifying to

majority of some 178 seats, says much

ironic, eh?

tumed the wishes of two British Prime

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Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Reader Feedback Dear Mr. Davey, Thank you for publishing my essay The Environment and Our Impact On It in Environmental Science & Engineering magazine. I am very honoured my first essay attempt has been published in such a distinguished magazine and quite amazed to see that the more cynical sec tions of the essay were retained in the

Our objective would be to inform elected officials of the importance of maintaining and refurbishing under ground infrastructure. We will likely seek other experts from organizations including the Round

edited version. I have noticed that some

ciation and a few authorities from the

of your editorials take a cynical view of the topic you are addressing and I thor oughly enjoy reading them. Again, thank you for publishing my essay.

David Sperling, Sarnia

Dear Mr. Davey, The Federation of Canadian Municipali ties (PCM) is the voice of municipal government. PCM holds an annual con ference attended by over one thousand delegates who are primarily elected of ficials and city managers. We are interested in inviting you to participate on a panel discussion tenta tively titled The ECM Symposium on Municipal Underground Infrastructure. The Conference takes place in Regina, Saskatchewan, between June 5-8,1998.

Table, NRC,the Centre for the Advance

ment of Trenchless Technologies, the Canadian Water and Wastewater Asso

nual ES&E Directory in the January is sue; I pull it, and place it on reserve in our college library. Students can use the directory to contact prospective employ ers, to obtain specific information from project engineers, and to appreciate the size and scope of the environmental in dustry. I consider Environmental Science &

Karen Mohindra

Engineering to be one of my competi tive edges as a college instructor, and at risk of losing this edge, I heartily rec

Federation of Canadian Municipalities

ommend that other environmental tech

private sector.

Dear Mr. Davey, Thank you for permission to copy the requested articles from Environmental Science & Engineering. I am a college instructor and I have been a regular sub scriber and reader of ES&E for five

years. I have found ES&E to be an ef fective means of remaining abreast with environmental issues, projects and tech nology. I share what I read in ES&E with my students by clipping and post ing articles or referring to an article to emphasize a point. The articles carry considerable sway with students be cause they are current and written by practising environmental engineers. Moreover, I now anticipate the an-

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEMS

nology college instructors take advan tage of ES&E. Robert M. Macrae, Instructor Integrated Environmental Planning Technology, Selkirk College, BC

Dear Tom, I would just like to thank you,on behalf of the class, for giving the lecture on October 6, Has the medium really be come the message, to my Environmen tal Engineering Seminar class. The stu dents enjoyed the exposure to what for them, is a very different area. After wards, the talk stimulated much discus sion.

Once again, thanks for your lecture. We really do appreciate the trouble which you took to travel to Montreal, and I enjoyed our dinner afterwards. Ronald Gehr,Ph.D.,P.Eng., Associate Professor,

CmrjKrnr

Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, QC Dear Penny, Terminal City will have a booth at the 1997 Union of British Columbia Mu

nicipalities Annual Convention held this October in Vancouver. This Convention

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attracts representatives from both Pro vincial and Municipal levels of govern ment.

Our booth will identify the "Cost Value" and "Quality" issues of products and services paid for by taxpayer dol lars. I would ask your permission to have on display,copies of the article The pipes, the pipes are appalling by Tom Davey which appeared in the March is sue ofES&E,and the August 19th Globe and Mail

Dale Baldry, General Manager Terminal City Iron Works Ltd. ...Good materialfor a course I teach on air pollution and control. J.H. Greenblatt,Tecbnical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Industry Update CO facility goes on stream

According to Marvin DeVries, Tro jan's Executive Vice President, "The Laval installation represents the first larger scale application for ultraviolet

in New Brunswick Praxair,Inc.,the world's largest supplier of carbon dioxide, has opened a new, 450 metric tons (495 tons) per day fa cility in Saint John, New Brunswick, to supply seafood processors and other

disinfection of wastewater that has re

ceived advanced primary treatment. Pilot studies had shown that conven

tional UV disinfection was not appro priate in this application." Five UV4000 systems have now been sold into the Quebec market. In that province, Trojan UV systems cur rently disinfect a total of half a billion gallons of wastewater per day.

carbon dioxide users in the Maritime

provinces and New England states. The new plant recovers and purifies

carbon dioxide(COj)produced as a by product of the refining process at the nearby Irving Oil Limited refinery. Working with Irvine Oil, Praxair recy

cles COj that was previously released

Select committee on

to the atmosphere.

nuclear affairs formed The Ontario legislature has formed a

$2.75 million UV waste-

Partnership to provide geomatics services Colder Associates and Terrain Resources

Ltd. have signed a strategic partnership agreement to provide geomatics services to public and private sector clients throughout the world. Colder Associ ates, a science and engineering consult ing firm, provides services in environ mental, mining and engineering arenas.

select committee to scrutinize Ontario

water system for Quebec

Hydro's nuclear recovery plan.

Trojan Technologies Inc. will supply a UV4000™ ultraviolet disinfection sys tem valued at $2.75 million, to the City of Laval, Quebec. Shipment is expected in the spring of 1998. The Laval mu nicipal UV system will treat up to 92 million gallons of wastewater per day. The civil infrastructure has been con

structed so that the capacity of the UV system can be more than doubled. STEP SCREEN^

and will be providing a more detailed review of the IIPA report to the govern ment. The AECB is the regulatory au thority for nuclear operations in Canada. It is expected that the select commit tee will provide a final report to the Leg islature by December 1, 1997.

The Select Committee on Ontario

Hydro Nuclear Affairs, will look into serious assertions made about Hydro's nuclear operations in the recent Inde pendent Integrated Performance Assess ment (IIPA) report on nuclear safety at the utility. The Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) has stated that the reactors do not constitute an immediate safety risk.

Alberta-based Terrain Resources Ltd.

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self-cleaning

ensures mucS higher degree of screening than the actual

Through flow

ECKOUSTIC FUNCTIONAL PANELS...the

For tank/channel

1, 3 or 8 mm

practical efficient solution to noise reduction needs. High Performance Combined with Economy • Outstanding sound absorption • Reduction of reverberation & background noise • Simple installation • Easy maintenance & durability

installation

slot width

provided

Compact+Stainleaa construction

5-^

Low maintenance

<h .VV"

transmission

Separation Equipment

Ac Water/Waatewater

ECKEL

Treatment Systems Tel: 416-250-7111

Fax: 416-250-8111

e-mail:

dagex@istar.ca

4141 Yonge St., Suite 307, North York, ON

M2P 2AB

For more information, circle reply card No. 109 (See page 17)

INDUSTRIES OF CANADA LIMITED 100 Allison Ave., Morrisburg, Ontario KOC 1X0 (613)543-2967 Fax:(613) 543-4173 1-800-563-3574 CAN./USA Web Site: http://www.eckel.ca/eckel E-mail: eckel@eckei.ca

For more information, circle reply card No. 165 (See page 17)

Oxygen and ozone solutions

Cost savings and environmental benefits with ozone Ozone (O3), with its oxidative capabil ity, is an ideal component in the envi ronmental treatment of waste and proc ess water, the purification of drinking water, pulp bleaching, and remediation. In the treatment of waste and proc ess water, ozone is used for colour re moval, and the reduction of BOD/

COD and pH. For drinking water,

systems, have formed a worldwide al liance to provide customers with total ozone solutions that deliver cost sav

ings and environmental benefits. Praxair-Trailigaz Ozone offers the combination of Praxair's expertise in the development, engineering and manufacturing of VPSA(vacuum pres sure swing adsorption)oxygen genera

tion systems (integral to producing high quality ozone as a disinfectant and bleaching agent) and Trailigaz's ad vanced ozone production systems. A new brochure,"Praxair-Trailigaz: The oxygen and ozone solution", is now available.

For more information,

circle reply card No. 140

ozone is used for disinfection and

deodorization. In remediation appli cations, it is used to facilitate soil

remediation, sludge digestion, and leachate treatment.

Ozone is the

bleaching agent of choice for TCP(to tally chlorine free) pulp production and has the potential to play a key role in closed pulping systems. Advanced oxidation processes combine ozone with ultra-violet (UV), catalysts, and hydrogen peroxide (H,0,). Praxair, one of the world's largest industrial gas companies,and Trailigaz, the world's leading supplier of ozone

Improved wastewater treatment Praxair's I-SO (In-Situ Oxygenation) unit was developed in response to the need for an improved method of dis solving oxygen into wastewater. The system utilizes a submerged mixer and delivers an oxygen utilization rate greater than 90%. Used with Praxair's on-site VPSA(vacuum pressure swing adsorption)oxygen plant,I-SO can re duce capital costs by half and power costs by a third over air-based activated sludge systems. In a new installation, I-SO can com

pete with traditional aerators on both a capital and a power usage basis. The low-cost unit can also be used to sup plement existing aeration systems to meet stringent environmental standards for BOD. The unit, which can treat a

radius of about 40 ft., can be positioned in the wastewater pond wherever there is an area of low-dissolved oxygen. Because of its simple design, the ISO system is easily retrofitted into all types of air-based treatment systems.

PRAxmisimv w

Praxair has acquired Liquid

Carbonic Industries, making us^ the world's largest supplier of

carbon dioxide and a good deal moi^

It vastly expands our, ^ability,

to provide a fuU menu of atniospheilg^ process and specialty gases. It giv^ us new capacity and expertise to sSrVe

nost any industry in 44 countriesf^ ^

^rldwide. And it lifts our revenues

|4 billion, making our future

;iivel^parkling.//^^PIIl/toffl ;

This means that I-SO is ideal for in

creasing the capacity of existing treat ment facilities without significantly in creasing capital and operating costs.

A^jng oiir planet more productive.: rSmore inf^inaiion please call l-800-PRAXAIR e-mail: info @ praxair.com

For more information,

circle reply card No. 141

For more information, circle reply card No. 110(See page 17)

Industry Update Diverting wood to create 6,500 new BC jobs The British Columbia government plans to pressure major forest companies to divert some export-destined wood to secondary manufacturers - creating 6,500 new jobs in the process. The pro posal could divert one million cubic metres more wood to BC companies that make log houses, doors and furniture, creating the jobs over the next four years. If achieved, it would be almost

30 percent of the 22,400 new-jobs tar

get the government set for the forestry industry in an agreement announced in

in BC goes to major forest companies, which usually sell most of their lumber

June 1997.

to long-established customers in other countries, particularly to the United

The British Columbia forest indus

try currently employs almost 100,000 people, making it one of the province's largest employers. In the remanufacturing sector - known as the value-added part of the forest industry -getting 6,500 more jobs "is doable," said John Brink, head of the BC Council of Value-added Wood Processors.

About 99 percent of wood harvested

States.

Under the new plan, major forest companies will increase the amount of sawn lumber they sell to remanufacturers by about 70 percent. All wood sold to the remanufacturers

will be at market prices. Additionally, significantly more wood from the prov ince's small-business forest program has been promised. Shake and-shingle mak ers, too, will be brought into the pro gram and see increases in the amount

THE FUTURE OF

of wood available to them.

WASTE WATER SCREENING

When BC Premier Glen Clark first CORPORATION

talked of creating another 22,400 jobs in the forest industry, he compared Brit ish Columbia's record with that of West

Coast competitors in Washington, Oregon and California, which get about twice as many jobs from each cubic metre of wood cut from their forests.

Over the past 35 years, the amount of timber cut annually in BC forests has more than doubled, to a recent high of about 80 million cubic metres from 30 million metres in 1961.

CEAA offers two

aste wateJ- s

DERRICK

errick Flo-Li

FLO-LINEÂŽ SCREENING MACHINE

designations for auditors The Canadian Environmental Auditing Association is now offering two profes sional designations for environmental auditors: 1) Certified Environmental

atids; wrym &jf,-corpo^ra

Auditor(CEA)designation which quali fies individuals to audit Environmental

ischarg

Management Systems(EMS),carry out ISO 14000 registration audits, compli

liici

ance auditing and other forms of envi ronmental audits. 2)Certified Environ

mental-Sustainable Eorest Management Auditor (CEA (SEM)) designation, which qualifies individuals to perform

EWef|

audits relevant to the CSA Z808/Z809

Sustainable Forest Management Stand ards (with the support of the Canadian Sustainable Forestry Certification Coa lition).

The CEA and CEA (SEM) designa tion requires that individuals meet mini mum qualification criteria for education, work experience, formal training and on-the-job training. Candidates for the designation who adequately satisfy the qualification criteria, are required to submit a written essay and attend an oral

â&#x2013;

t PERRICK CORPOI^^ION

iTHOlhJinT^

1 FAX:[716] 683-4991 THURSTON MACHINE INC.

DAGEX INC.

1 586 Griffiths Place

Kelowna, British Columbia VIZ 2T7

4141 Yonge St., Suite 307 North York, Ontario M2P 2A8

Phone: 604-769-3848

Phone: 416-250-7111 or 1-800-665-7136

Fax: 604-769-5859

Fax: 416-250-8111

For more information, circle reply card No. 111 (See page 17)

examination.

Contact Jennifer Wittig, Tel: (905) 814-1274,Fax:(905)814-1158,E-mail: registrar.ceaa@sympatico.ca.

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Trenchless Pipeline Renewal With over 4 million feet installed, U-Liner

has proven to be one of the best solutions for trenchless pipeline renewal. Each U-Liner coil is manufactured to specifications for each pro ject by CSR Pipeline Systems, a leader in pipeline rehabilitation technology. U-Liner is made of pure, high density polyethylene (HOPE). It is a seamless, tubular line, deformed at the factory into a "U" shape of U-Liner, the patented "pipe within a pipe

jdintless coils in a variety of lengths and diameters for rapid, trenchless installation into r the existing pipe. There, it is reformed in place by a patented heat/pressure method, resulting in a tight-fitting "pipe within a pipe." Without any excavation, surface disruption or environmental risks.

The advantages of U-Liner: • Non-jointed for leak-proof, unrestricted flow

U-Liner pipe is custom produced in continuous lengths to meet your specifications.

• • • •

Environmentally safe Designed for direct burial 50-1- year design life Inert and highly resistant to harsh chemicals

• Available from 6" - 18" diameters

U-Liner reforms to the

shape of the ht host pipe.

CSR Pipeline Systems offers vast experience in piping research, design, engineering, and technology support. We have the financial strength and a network of licensed installers to support the most ambitious projects. U-Liner - proven efficiency in renewal of pipelines for water, wastewater, chemical, natural gas and industrial applications. Whereever pipe needs to be renewed, U-Liner may be the solution.

CSR Pipeline Systems

i. 16701 Greenspoint Park Dri\ e Ste. 350

Houston, Texas 77060 800-511-1488

Sophisticated monitoring technology ensures a qualit\' installation.

Fax: (281) 874-0962 www.csrpipesystenis.com/uliner

For more information, circle reply card No. 112(See page 17)

Industry Update

DATE PAD April 8-9,1998. Environmental Com pliance '98. Toronto Congress Centre,

Largest HDPE pipe in the world!

Toronto, ON. Environmental Science &

Engineering magazine will be sponsor ing the Environmental Compliance Con ference for the 6th consecutive year in 1998. Contact: ES&E for information

(905) 727-4666, Fax: (905) 841-7271, E-mail: esemag@istar.ca.

November 24-28, 1997. Urban Infra structure Week organized by the Center for Expertise and Research on Infra structures in Urban Areas (CERIU). Montreal,QC. Contact: CERIU, Tel: (514)848-9885, Fax:(514) 848-7031. November 30-December 3,1997. The VIIIth Industrial Biotechnology Confer ence. Toronto, ON. Contact: Pierre Lamoureux, National Research Council

of Canada (613) 993-9431, Fax: (613) 993-7250.

December 2-4,1997. HazWaste World/ Superfund XVIII, Washington, DC. Sponsored by Environmental Industry Associations. Contact: Susan Cantor

At 63" in diameter, this is said to be the largest HDPE water pipe in the world. It was manufactured in Canada by KWH and displayed at a day-long working semi nar on HDPE pipe and fittings, put on by Scarborough Supply. Photo - Tom Davey

(301)493-5500.

February 16-18,1998. 1998 Environ mental Issues Workshop - Implement

ing Environmental Management Sys tems For Government Operations, Ottawa, ON. Sponsored by Environ ment Canada. Contact: Taylor & Asso ciates, Tel: (613)747-0262. March 12-14, 1998. The American Concrete Pipe Association's 1998 Short Course School, Columbus, Ohio. Con tact: ACPA (972)506-7216, Fax:(972) 506-7682.

March 25-29, 1998. 31st Mostra Convegno Expocomfort international exhibition, Milan, Italy. Tel: -(-+39.2/ 485501, Fax: ++39.2/48005450, Website: http://www.fmi.it..

It's a 'NETE' program Ontario has introduced a pilot project to encourage the development and use of new environmental technologies. The pilot is designed to help new technolo gies overcome some of the initial barri ers to commercialization. Currently, it is difficult to get support for an initial

field test, demonstration, sale and ap proval to operate. The New Environmental Technolo

gies Evaluation Program (NETE) will provide applicants with an opinion let ter outlining the potential applicability of the technology on a site specific ba sis in Ontario and the likelihood of the

May 12-16,1998. Entsorga '98. Every

technology meeting the Ontario stand ards or regulations under the Ontario

two years, Cologne's Entsorga provides a platform for innovative products and

Water Resources Act(OWRA)and the Environmental Protection Act(EPA).

services in the environmental sector.

The service will cost $500 for a sim

Cologne, Germany. Contact:(416)5983343, Fax:(416)598-1840.

ple evaluation/assessment of a chemi cal, chemical coating, or construction

September 9-11, 1998. Post-Emer gency Response Issues Conference.

ment or supply of drinking water. A fee

Washington, DC. This US EPA-sponsored conference will focus on post-re sponse issues of concem to emergency respondents following a significant ra diological release. Contact: Sarah Wallis, SciComm, Inc., 7735 Old Georgetown Road, Fifth Floor, Bethesda, MD 20814, Tel: (301) 6521900, Fax: (301) 652-7001, E-mail: epaconference@scicomm.com. 16

material for use in the processing treat

of $2,000 will be charged to evaluate/ assess any innovative technology. Tech nologies to be covered include drinking water treatment and supply, municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, air pollution prevention and control, haz ardous waste management, and site remediation. Generally, unproven tech nologies or those unproven in Ontario are eligible to apply for this service. NETE should complement the Fed

eral government's Environmental Tech nology Verification (ETV) Program.

While Ontario's NETE pilot will help early stage companies with a first sale or initial marketing efforts, the federal ETV Program will verify manufactur er's performance claims.

ARC scientist wins Emerald Award Albert Research Council(ARC)scien tist, Terry Macyk,has been awarded the Alberta Emerald Foundation for Envi ronmental Excellence's award for re search and innovation. The award rec

ognizes his ground-breaking work in the land application of pulp and paper mill sludges. Terry Macyk demonstrated that sludges from CTMP (chemithermomechanical pulp) mills can be landspread and that they have beneficial ef fects on soil quality and plant growth. Field tests have shown crop yield in creases ranging from 20 to 100 percent as a result of sludge application. The savings on landfill are estimated at $2 million/landfill/three-year period for one mill.

The resulting technology has been transferred to the mills for full-scale, operational landspreading, and the re search has given regulatory agencies some basis for decision-making regard

ing the requirements for licensing of operational landspreading activities.

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Environmental Monitoring Equipment ^ ^M

^. j. For fast response to your Soles, Service or Rental enquiry, please call our Technical Hotline: 1 -800-215-4469 Visit us on ttie Internet: www.can-am.net

Instruments Ltd.

2495 Haines Road, Mlssissougo, On, L4Y 1Y7, Phone: 905-277-0331 Fox: 905-277-2588

if ■

Portable

Gas Cliromatograpli The Photovac G.C. Is

OIIAVater Separator

Effluent Sampler

Mclighe offers a wide range of separator capacities from 10 to 4,000 gallons per minute. The unique Retro Pok option allows a McTighe separator to achieve oil

Sigmo's line of samplers

ergonotnlcally designed for occupational and environmental Health & Safety monitoring. Multi-detector capability including RID and ECD, Exceptional sensitivity to

effluent levels well below

iovY PPB levels.

lOPPM.

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Circle reply card No 351

and fiowmeters offer state

of the act technology providing you with reliable and accurate samples and flow measurements.

Circle reply card Na 352

For more information, circle reply card No. 166(See page 17)

TROJAN... the revolutionary System

UV4000 will change the way you think about wastewater disinfection Trojan System UV4000™ incorporates high Intensity UV lamps in a controlled geometry, variable UV lamp output precisely matched to w/astewater UV demand, modular open channel lamp configurations and our innovative selt-cleaning system. The use of high intensity UV lamps dramatically reduces the total number of lamps required, resulting in reduced space requirements. System UV4000™ is engineered to meet the most demanding performance requirements, whether the application be primary or secondary effluents, combined sewer overflows,

stormwater or high level disinfection. For reliable UV solutions, go with the leader.

Trojan... the brightest ideas in UV technoiogy

ead Office: 3020 Gore Roacl. London, Ontario, Canada N5V 4T7 uropean Office: Kwarteilaan 1,2566 OR The Hague, Netheriands iternet: http://www.trojanuv.com

lei: (519) 457-3400

Fax:(519) 457-3030

Tei: 31-70-3602868

Fax: 31-70-3655164

Trojan lectinologies Inc.

I I llll—^——III

For more information, circle reply card No. 113(See page 17)

Industry Update Normal dioxin levels

reported near Plastimet fire site The Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy has released results confirm ing that dioxin levels in soil, grass and vegetables in Hamilton have returned to normal background levels for urban ar eas following the fire at Plastimet Inc. in early July. Soil samples collected from residen tial properties in Hamilton contained dioxin levels ranging from 2.18 parts per

trillion (ppt) to 28.2 ppt (the Ministry cleanup guideline for residential soil is 1,000 ppt). Dioxin levels in grass ranged

from 0.036 ppt to 0.467 ppt. There is no guideline for dioxins in grass. Veg etables contained dioxins at concentra

tions between 0.019 ppt to 0.676 ppt. Levels up to 1.000 ppt are not unusual for produce from urban areas. The ministry took another step to ward the cleanup of the Plastimet prop erty by awarding a contract to Laidlaw Environmental (Guelph) Services Ltd. to remove and dispose of the fire debris.

The dream of a

PCB-freeToronto is becoming reality.

University of Quebec,sampled approxi mately 300 lakes and wetlands in westem North America in 1995. Their pre liminary analysis of water samples re vealed large numbers of viruses; many may be mammalian or avian. Now many questions need answering: Are these new vimses? Do they pose any

material.

Toronto Hydro's reputation as a leader in managing PCBs dates back to the early 1980s. In fact, we've transported more PCBs than any municipal utility in Canada - accident-free.

threat to human or wildlife health?

Larry Yeigh, P.Eng.

Ontario-based Eco Logic has developed an award-winning PCB-destruction process that converts PCBs into methane ^ and other reusable products.

• Reduces the risk and liability of long distance transportation of your waste.

Wetland pond viruses A startlingly large number of viruses have been found in prairie wetlands and ponds. For example, in a drinking water dugout in Saskatchewan,there are more than 2.5 billion viruses per millilitre of water. These numbers are among the highest ever recorded in aquatic eco systems, anywhere in the world. Dr. Richard Robarts of Environment

Eco Logic have joined forces to eliminate PCB-contaminated

• Eliminates the cost and potential liability of storage.

The MGEE took over the mainte

nance of the Plastimet Inc. recycling plant fire site in Hamilton under the au thority of the Environmental Protection Act in September, 1997. With the Min istry officially in charge, contractors have maintained their cleanup tasks at the Plastimet site without interruption.

Canada and Professor David Bird of the

Great news for Toronto Hydro customers! Toronto Hydro and

Together, we offer a complete local solution that: • Provides convenient removal of all your PCB waste.

The removal was expected to take five weeks, beginning October 6,1997. The cleanup is expected to cost approxi mately $1.8 million.

May 20,1932 - October 26,1997 Larry Yeigh was an extraordinary man. He exemplified excellence personally and professionally. His extraordinarily well balanced nature extended itself

even to a terminal prognosis oflung can cer. As befitted his keen intellect and

competitive spirit, he set out to discover all that he could about his condition and

possible treatment, both mainstream and alternative. He handled his situation as

•The process handles any concentration of PCBs.

• Employs non-incineration destruction technology. For more Information about a cost-effective alternative

to PCB storage or incineration call us at(416)591-1806.

ligiroiiaw

For more information, circle reply card No. 114 (See page 17)

a challenge to be met, a problem to be solved. Every effort was an attempt not to deny the reahty of his illness, but rather, to extend the time he had remaining to ease the burden on those close to him.

In his usual manner,Larry dealt with this challenge rationally. He continued his work at Napier-Reid as profession ally as ever, and with minimal disrup tion, until early September. We at Napier-Reid honoured Larry's wish for privacy with respect to disclosure of his illness. Those who knew him person ally will understand. Larry's presence at Napier-Reid and within the environmental industry will be sorely missed. Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

APRIL 8 & 9,1998

\)N#

Held at Toronto's mostImpressive

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TORONTO CONGRESS CENTRE

Meet key environmental protection professionals and see the most ivanced technology and solutions the environmental industry has to offer! Call for EXHIBIT INQUIRIES:

Call for CONFERENCE DETAILS:

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Environmental Science & Engineering 220 Industrial Parkway South, Unit 30

www.gwexpo.com/enviro

Seminar Addition:

Aurora, Ontario L4G 3V6

Phone:(905)727-4666 Fax:(905)841-7271 E-mail: esemag@istar.ca

Solid Waste/Recycling

â&#x2013; AX YOUR FREE REGISTRATION NOW OR REGISTER ONLINE AT

www.gwexpo.com/enviro Company Name: Address:

City: Telephone: Name Name Name Name Name

of of of of of

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Fax:

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For more information, circie repiy card No 115 (see page 17

Lake Remediation

By Tom Davey

Two lake lungs will protect Richmond Hill's aquatic asset- Lake Wilcox

Over the years, I have spent

many hours windsurfing and swimming in Lake Wilcox,

40k

north

of Toronto.

Gradually it became obvious that the water quality was becoming seriously impaired. The deterioration should de crease with the installation of two "lake

lungs" in August. The Wilcox lungs fol low two earlier pilot projects at Heart Lake in Brampton and Chesley Lake in Owen Sound, Ontario.

"The lake lungs pump oxygen into the water," says John Nemeth, Rich mond Hill's manager of environmental services. "In summer, oxygen levels become depleted. The top four or five metres will have oxygen, but the lake is 18 metres deep." All the fish and the zooplankton that they eat, move into the top portion of the lake, where the oxygen is. By the

PVC hypolimnetic oxygenation devices under construction.

end of June, fish start to lose a lot of

their food sources. They end up eating each other, doing what they have to do to stay alive. By pumping oxygen throughout the lake, the lungs allow the fish and zooplankton to live in deeper water. Food will be more abundant, which means more fish will be able to live in the lake. The Town of Richmond Hill looked

at many different options and the plan ning department was also involved. The use of lake lungs was the best option. The equipment costs $405,000; the town is paying just under half the cost, with the remainder shared by the Great Lakes 2000 Clean Up Fund, Ministry of Environment and Energy and Rich mond Hill Hydro Electric Commission. The project will cost $10,000 annually. Technically known as hypolimnetic oxygenation devices,the U-shaped PVC pipes are 600 millimetres in diameter. The open ends of the U are pointed to

One of the lungs being towed prior to submersion.

ward the bottom of the lake and the

closed end is at the surface, supported by flotation devices. One penetrates 14 metres deep and the other goes 18 me

tres down. The 95 percent pure oxygen is pumped out to the lungs from an O, generator on the shore.

The lake lungs, the largest project of its kind in North America, will be wel comed by swimmers,canoists and wind surfers.

Circle reply card No. 116 20

Oxygen generation facility under construction. Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Restoration Environmental Contractors Is proud to present The New TORBO SYSTEM for LEAD PAINT REMOVAL! The Torbo System is a proven,safe,cost effective and versatile method for removal of Lead Paint with no messy chemicals, no dusty sandblasting! An efficient alternative to the extremely high labour costs associated with outdated conventional methods used today for the removal of Lead,Asbestos and Hazardous Coatings! torbo

=< torbo

o The NEW TORBO WET ABRASIVE BLASTING SYSTEM Is the best new Environmental Abatement Technology for Removal of Lead Paint, Asbestos and Hazardous Coatings from any type of structure or building surface. Restoration Envirorunental Contractors are the Experts in Building and Facility Environmental Decontamination.We offer competitive pricing,professional service,quality workmanship,confidential budget estimates, and expert project management. We can supply you with excellent client references, the credibility you expect and the guaranteed performance you demand!

Restoration Environmental Contractors are recommended by over 150 Environmental Consultants, backed by 100% Performance Bonding and $5 million in Environmental & Pollution Impairment Occurrence Form,General Liability Insurance Coverage. So be proactive, protect your personal & corporate assets. Protect your future! As a Building Owner,an Architect, a Consulting Enguaeer, a Property Manager or an Environmental Consultant, we offer good value for your budget,call us today! Specify the new Torbo System for your next Lead & Asbestos project. Call us to order our Business Profile Information and Reference Package,today! asbestos abatement and removal contractors

lead abatement and lead paint removal plant decommissioning urea formaldehyde foam (UFFI) removal asbestos encapsulation and repair power washing and steam cleaning fire clean-ups, removal, restorations environmental clean-ups industrial fire cleaning and restoration performance bonding $5 million Environmental Insurance Coverage Project Management

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Water Treatment

By Saad Y. Jasim, Ph.D., P.Eng.*

The reduction of aluminum In

drinking water -a study

Aluminum constitutes more

Figure -1 Raw Water Quality

than eight percent of the to

tal mass of the earth's crust. It is an element that is found

in virtually every plant and animal tis sue. It is typically not detected in natu ral waters in concentrations greater than a few hundreds of micrograms per litre, and is more likely to be found in sur face waters than in groundwaters. Alu minum from drinking water provides a small portion of our total daily intake (about 2-5%). Aluminum compounds are widely used in consumer products such as processed foods,cosmetics,antiperspirants, and pharmaceuticals. Aluminum levels are an emerging issue in drinking water treatment. Al though there are currently no healthrelated guidelines for aluminum in drinking water in Canada, the FederalProvincial Subcommittee on Drinking Water is considering a drinking water guideline for soluble aluminum. There is, however, a non health-related 'opera tional guideline' in Ontario of 100 pg/L (form of aluminum not specified). Aluminum salts are used as coagu lants in drinking water treatment for re moval of particulate matter including potentially pathogenic microorganisms and disinfection by-product(DBFs)pre

Temp. De^. C

7/26/S6

TurbJdIty

7/26/96 Turbidity

NTU

8/2/96

pH â&#x2013;ĄTemp. Deg. C

in either soluble or particulate form, and the reduction of alum dosages will not necessarily result in the reduction of aluminum residuals. Replacing alum with other coagulants can be one of the solutions to the high residual aluminum problem, but this may not be cost-ef fective or may result in decreased tur bidity removal efficiency. The Windsor Water Treatment Cen

The Water Treatment Centre serves

three municipalities whose total popu lation is approximately 214,000. Raw water is drawn from the Detroit River which connects Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie.

The Detroit River water has a

small range in variation of key water quality parameters, low values of tur bidity (except for occasional spikes), colour, total organic carbon (1.5-1.8 mg/ L), and moderate hardness (100-150 mg/

Chemical coagulants such as

tre was upgraded in 1994 to increase total capacity from 227 ML/d to 454

L as CaCOj), pH (8.00-8.3), and alka

aluminum sulfate (A1,(S0^)3.14H20)

ML/d with the construction of a second

linity (85-100 mg/L), (Figure 1).

(alum)are applied in water treatment for the purpose of combining small sus pended particles into larger aggregates, which are then more readily removable through sedimentation and filtration. Alum is the most widely used coagu lant in drinking water treatment. The advantages of using alum include: avail ability, low cost, effectiveness with a wide variety of water types, and its ef

drinking water treatment plant (Albert H. Weeks) at the site of the original plant.

cursors.

Figure- 2 PILOT PLANT CONFIGURATION Raw Water

Raw Water

Storage Tank

fectiveness under various conditions

(i.e. temperature, pH, etc.). Many factors must be considered in optimizing water treatment processes involving the use of alum as a coagu

Rapid Mixer

Floccuiation Tank

lant. Factors that affect the selection of

an optimal dose include raw water tur bidity, temperature,total organic carbon and alkalinity. Aluminum residuals may be present *Dr. Jasim carried out the study for Windsor Utilities Commission, Ontario. 22

soluble aluminum concentration.

Rapid Mixer

Floccuiation Tank

Sedimentation Tank

I Sedimentation Tank |

I Settled Water

Sbrage Tank

Storage Tank

E Anthracite/Sand Filler

Side 1

Windsor Utilities Commission, in

association with the University of Wa terloo, has recently conducted a pilot plant study to examine and apply alter native treatment options to improve water quality. Experiments were con ducted to investigate different ap proaches to reduce the level of soluble aluminum in drinking water, and to in vestigate the effect of pH depression on

Anthracite/Sand RIter

Side 2

The pilot plant used in this study had two identical process trains constructed of organically inert materials (stainless steel, glass, orfluorocarbons). Each side of the pilot plant shared identical physi cal characteristics which allowed for

direct comparison between the two sides of the plant with a common raw water quality (Figure 2). The pilot plant is equipped with computer assisted proc ess and instrumentation control and on-

Continued overleaf

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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For more information, circle reply card No. 118 (See page 17)

Water Treatment, cont'd. and-off line data collection and storage capability. The flow rate through the front end

Figure 3 pH vs. Aluminum

of the pilot plant was always 13 L/min per side. The hydraulic loading in the anthracite/sand filters was 10.7 m/h

(3.25 L/min) for all runs. Pilot plant

operating conditions were set to match I At ug/L

► At ug/L Thooretical

I 100 3

Theoretical calculations were used to

the corresponding full scale treatment plant conditions as closely as possible.

«0

6.8

7.2

7.4

predict soluble aluminum concentra tions as a function of pH. These calcu lations used simplifying assumptions and assisted with experimental design. Side 1 of the pilot plant was dosed with alum at 30 mg/L and sulfuric acid, reducing the settled and filtered water pH to as low as 6.5, while side 2 was dosed at 40 mg/L (settled and filtered water pH was around 7.5). As expected,

7.6

soluble aluminum concentration was pH

dependent, and the experimental data showed a good agreement with the theo

Figured Alum+Sulfuric Acid (sidel) vs. Alum (side 2)* August 1,1996 ■ 250

retical calculations (Figure 3). A significant reduction in the con centrations of soluble aluminum was no

ticed following sedimentation and fil tration when pH was depressed down as low as 6.5 (side 1) compared to the aluminum concentrations on side 2

where pH was 7.5 (Figure 4). Another experiment was conducted

100I

using Clar Ion A7 (acidified alum, sup ■ pH -Soluble Atufnlnuffl ug/L

plied by General Chemical Canada Ltd.,) as a coagulant on side 2, while alum was applied to side 1 using the same dosage on both sides of the pilot plant (40 mg/L). Clar Ion A7 reduced pH on side 2 to 7, while pH on side 1 was 7.3. Soluble aluminum concentra tions for both settled and filtered water

were reduced noticeably on side 2 com pared to aluminum concentrations on side 1 (Figure 5). As calculated theoretically, soluble aluminum concentration was pH de pendent. A significant reduction in the

Ffgure-5 AJum (side 1) vs. Clar Ion A7 (side 2)* October 21,1996 • 250

concentration of soluble aluminum was

noticed when the pH was depressed as low as 6.5 by the addition of sulfuric acid compared to using alum only. The use of Clar Ion A7 depressed the pH to 7 and soluble aluminum concentration

■ pH -Soluble Aluminum ugfl.

was reduced compared to the use of alum with similar dosages. The experi ments provided a useful approach to be considered to reduce soluble aluminum

concentration in drinking water, and

provided a practical demonstration of the conditions required to achieve a given aluminum level in this water. Circle reply card No. 119 Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Confined Space Safety

Selecting gas detectors for confined space entries - Part I

Without proper gas detec tion, hazardous atmos

tection instruments:

pheres may significantly

indirect reading and direct reading.

affect the health of an en

With indirect read

try team. Many airborne contaminants cannot be detected by smell or vision and can only be measured with special ised equipment. Data gathered in the late seventies and early eighties indi cated that 65% of all those who died in

confined spaces were unaware that the space they were entering was a poten tial hazard. Over 50% of confined space

ing instruments, samples must be sent to a laboratory for analysis; direct reading instruments provide their infor mation at the time

CATALYTIC COMBUSTION GAS SENSOR .FLAME ARRESTER

.HOUSING

COMPENSATING

BEAD

deaths occur to the rescuers and over one

of sampling. Since the primary objec tive of gas detec

third of the fatalities occurred after the

tion in confined

space was tested and declared safe and the gas detector was removed. Depending on its sensor configura tion, proper gas detection equipment can help identify the hazard and protect your

space operations is to immediately warn the entry team of adverse atmospheric changes, direct reading instruments are the only safe source of sampling infor

BEAD

Figure 1

mation. There are a number of direct

reading portable gas detectors on the Selecting a gas detector should be market today. based on the hazard faced. Unfortu Gas detectors come in a variety of nately far too many purchasers make one sizes, shapes, colours and sensor con of the largest and most crucial single figurations. For confined space work, equipment expenditures without really it is necessary to monitor for oxygen understanding what they are buying. deficiency/enrichment, combustible Sensors and their capabilities are the sin gases and toxics. Therefore an instru gle most important factor when choos ment capable of dealing with these three ing a gas detector, yet more often than issues is necessary. not, decisions are based on size, price, Gas detection manufacturers produce bells and whistles and other such fea instruments with a variety of sensor con tures that have nothing to do with the figurations. One should be fully aware instrument's detecting abilities. of the different sensor types and the ca There are two categories of gas de- pabilities of each before purchase. Just because catalogues or advertisements President, Canadian Safety Equipment say that their instrument covers these ^President, Safetyscope three main parameters doesn't mean that it will provide enMETALLIC OXIDE SEMICONDUCTOR(MOS) try teams with the required protec workers.

tion.

Never as

sume that instru .SiNTERED STAiNLESS STEEL

CUP

.NOBEL METAL WIRE

chambers which each contain a coiled

wire filament. One chamber is designed to allow air to enter it, and its coil is

coated with platinum or palladium. The other chamber is sealed to prevent air from entering and the coil is not coated. Both coils are heated (to temperatures of 500°F or higher). When combusti ble gases are exposed to the coil they will ignite and raise the temperature of the bead even higher. The temperature increase and the change of the coil's electrical resistance is displayed as"per cent LEL".

These sensors offer good linearity, and can react to most combustible gases. Flowever, as resistance change per per cent LEL is quite small, they work bet ter in concentrations between 1,000 and

what you can rea sonably expect to find in your par ticular space. that the instrument

Figure 2

Combustible Gas Sensors

a) Catalytic Combustible Gas Sensors. These sensors look for explosive atmos pheres. They detect combustible gases by causing an actual combustion of gases within the sensor chamber. (Fig ure 1). A catalytic sensor consists of a flame arresting material, encasing two

50,000 PPM. They do not measure trace amounts of gas (under 200 PPM) and therefore are of no use in determining toxic levels. The disadvantages are: • they must have a minimum of 16% oxygen content in the air to work accu rately, • the sensor can be damaged by lead or

2. You must ensure

.NICKEL PINS

SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

ments will work for

tant criteria:

.HEATER COIL

these hazards.

specific applica tions without ap plying two impor 1. You must know

SENSOR.

.TEMPERATURE

SENSING.

you are going to purchase/use is ca pable of detecting

silicone,

•the readings can be affected by humid ity and water vapour condensation, •they respond poorly to low energy hy drocarbons such as oil vapours, • they are not recommended for use in

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

By Ross Humphry^ and Tim Morrison^

ELECTROCHEMICAL TOXIC SENSOR .FRONT END MEMBRANE.

PLATE

require a constant

sors, Wet Chem sensors have their limi

flow across the

tations. The fluid can freeze when left

sensing assembly and may be slow to

in environments having temperatures lower than 0°C. They are also adversely affected by altitude. Air pressure at sea level (14.73 psi absolute) is the force required to induce the air into the sen

-SUPPORT GRID

ANODE -

clear from alarm. -CATHODE

Toxic Sensors

a)Electrochemical (Wet Chem) Toxic .ELECTROLYTE RESERVOIR

These sensors

react to a specific chemical (sub stance). Chemi cally specific sen

BACK END PLATE COUNTER ELECTRODE REFERENCE ELECTRODE

Figure 3

Sensors

for chlorine, am monia, carbon

SENSING ELECTRODE

an acetylene atmosphere. The flame arrestor will prevent ignition of most gases except acetylene outside the sen sor. It is extremely important to check the approvals for which type of hazard ous locations the detector can function in.

b) Metallic Oxide Semiconductor (MOS)Combustible Gas Sensor MOS or "Solid State" Combustible

Gas Sensors consist of a housing (either a stainless steel sintered cup or plastic) containing an electric conductor. This conductor is made up of a heating ele ment (operating between 150°F to 350°F) and a bead that is a proprietary mixture of metal oxides. As current trav

els through the bead when exposed to clean air, a base resistance is established. When a gas comes into contact with the sensor surface, a change in sensor re sistance occurs. The sensor resistance

can change significantly even with small quantities of gases. This sensor has a long operation life(3 to 5 years), is very rugged and will recover better from high concentrations of a gas that could dam age other types of sensors. (Figure 2) There are also disadvantages: • MOS sensors also require oxygen to work accurately, although not as much as the catalytic, •some sensors' heating elements have a high demand for power which requires large battery packs, •the readings can be affected by humid ity and water vapour condensation. c)Infra-Red Combustible Sensors Recently Infra-Red Sensors are ap pearing in some instruments. They work well in low oxygen levels or acetylene atmospheres; however, they are quite expensive. These sensors work by re flecting light off a mirror and measur ing the amount of light adsorbed during refraction. Infrared sensors typically

sors are available

monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen di oxide, nitric oxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide and hydrochloric acid. The manufacturer's technical information will indicate what

sensors are available for their unit. (Fig ure 3). The electrochemical sensor housing contains two(and sometimes three)elec trodes sitting in a liquid solution (either a base or alkali, depending on what the sensor is looking for). The housing is

covered by a Teflon membrane that keeps the fluid in the housing yet allows air in. As air molecules enter through the thin Teflon membrane,the fluid will

react with a specific substance iffound. When the detector is working a small current passes between the two elec trodes. Any change in the fluid's den sity caused by the substance in the air will affect the density of the fluid and change the amount of current passing between the two electrodes. The cur

rent then passes through a temperature compensating circuit. The electron flow is then read as a specific amount of the substance, nie manufacturer creates a

Wet Chem Sensor's ability to detect spe cific types of gases based on the choice

sor. As one rises in altitude, the less

force is available to push the air into the sensor, thus reducing the accuracy of the reading. Some substances, (e.g. mois ture) affect the sensor by changing the make up of the fluid, thus reducing the amount of electrochemical reaction that

changes the electrical resistance which impacts the reading. Check the manu facturer's instructions to see which sub stances will affect the sensor.

Abnormal readings are another issue with regards to Wet Chem sensors. Ab normal readings are generally readings that don't make sense. For instance you are working in a sanitary sewer and your instrument is showing a CO reading of 300PPM (current TWA in Ontario is 35 PPM) and a low reading (below the TWA of 10 PPM)of hydrogen sulphide. What you likely have is an interference from the hydrogen sulphide. Some electrochemical carbon monoxide sen

sors are subject to interference from low levels of hydrogen sulphide. The know ledge that carbon monoxide is not a common occurrence in sanitary sewer applications (whereas hydrogen sul phide is) would lead you to consider that you are probably having an interference problem. Awareness of the hazards in your workplace,some basic understanding of chemistry, knowing what interferent gases adversely affect your unit and strict testing protocols will minimise this problem. b)Metallic Oxide Semiconductor(MOS) Toxic Broad Range Gas Sensors There are a number of different MOS

of membrane,the number of electrodes,

sensors on the market and one has been

the alloy of the electrode (gold, lead, etc.) and type of electrolyte fluid. These sensors have very good linear ity which makes them very accurate

developed for detecting toxic gases. Its make-up and operation is similar to the Continued on page 56

WET CHEMISTRY OXYGEN GAS SENSOR

for the substance

they will react to. They can measure either large or small quantities and these sensors

TEFLON MEMBRANE

SENSING ELECTRODE

COUNTER

□

ELECTRODE

have a typical life span of approxi mately 1 year. As with all sen

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

CONTACTS

Figure 4

BASIC ELECTROLYTE

Risk Assessment

Confronting environmental fantasies with scientific realities

Life is a sexually transmitted

mam

condition that is inevitably fatal. This end point - death is the result of one risk or an

other catching up with us, and the later, the better. Some risks may be avoided most of the time. Most can't. We are

surrounded by risks. All we can hope to do is to learn about risks, reduce the

ones that kill us too obviously too soon, and live as long as possible until the one we don't survive, gets us. Living with Risk To the ancient Greeks,the most risky thing that they could do was to displease any of their many jealous gods. They believed that whatever misfortune be fell them was attributable to carelessness

on their part in observing the many petty rituals. If you believe, as they did, that your good or ill fortune is so closely tied to such caprice, and is mostly outside of your control, then it is pointless to observe causes and effects, and there is

little reason to try to change anything. If we don't know what is injuring or kill ing us, then we can do nothing about it. However, the Greeks of even twentyfive hundred years ago, were laying the foundations of the scientific method,

studying mathematics, medicine, anatomy and observing what was going on around them. Had we not lost their

inquiring drive, we would have been 2,000 years further ahead of where we are today. The intervening Dark Ages were well-named.

One of the first and most thorough tabulations of causes of death was for London in 1665 when 20% of the entire

This 'funeral' of Toronto's Don River was probably the first of the media grabbing stunts ever held in Canada. Organized by Pollution Probe in 1969, well before the birth of Greenpeace, the Feilini-like antics of the activists attracted generous media coverage. Photo - Tom Davey, Davcom archives.

questioning why. People died - shrug what was there to question? The sup posed causes of death of the other

few days, and thousands fleeing the area, but, until Dr. Snow came along, there

30,000, reads more like a Gilbert and

brought to bear on it. Dr. Snow had seen that the cholera epidemic was mostly as sociated with water supplied by the Southwark and Vauxhall Company

Sullivan operetta, than the kind of medi cal science in which anyone might place any degree of confidence. Just a few years after this and before the century ended, the Stuart Queen Anne had been pregnant 18 times. Five of them sur vived birth, but only one survived in fancy, to die before reaching adulthood. No one knew why. The Scientific Method for

Reducing Risk Almost 200 years later, in 1854, Dr.

population died(See table). In that year,

John Snow who had observed and stud

one of the four Horsemen of the

ied outbreaks of cholera, appeared be fore a meeting of the Vestrymen of St James Parish in Soho and suggested that they counter an epidemic of cholera by removing the handle of the Broad Street water pump from which many people

Apocolypse was very busy, as about 70% of the almost 100,000 deaths were

of the plague (black death), a disease carried by fleas living on rats that thrived in the filth around humanity. The same disease swept through Europe with some regularity and killed many millions - up to half of the entire population in one period - but no one seemed capable of *Dr. Sutherland is a Health Physicist involved with environmental measurements and radia

tion protection, in Fredericton, New Bruns wick. He is an adjunct professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of New Bruns wick where he teaches a course on Nuclear

Safety and Reliability. 28

drew their household water. His unu

sual suggestion, backed up by astute ob servation, was complied with, although the temptation may have been to turf him out. (One legend has it that Dr. Snow broke the pump's handle, so preventing its use. - Editor) As the epidemic was already decreasing, it was difficult to decide if this measure had achieved any thing. The risk was all too obvious, with hundreds dying prematurely over just a

was no obvious scientific method

which took water from the river Thames

below a major sewage outfall. Where households used water supplied by the Lambeth Company from further upriver, there were about eight times fewer deaths from cholera.

The scientific process - and scien tists-had many scornful detractors then, as now, as Dr. Jenner had found out al

most 50 years earlier with his revolu tionary and successful treatment of smallpox, for which he received little thanks in some quarters; he was accused from many-a-pulpit of meddling in a pre-ordained Plan. The same is happening today. The ones who know the least are busy try ing to discredit the ones who know the most. Oliver Wendell Holmes captured the spirit of it when he said that contro versy puts wise men and fools on an equal footing. And the fools know this. In the age of superstition and igno rance, diseases were widely believed to be the consequences of evil behaviour and typically struck down 'the poor, the indigent, the intemperate and the disso-

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

By John K. Sutherland* lute'. In former times the Vestrymen might just as well have rounded up and burned a few foreigners or witches, as their ancestors might have done, rather than pay heed to a stranger. It took the next 30 years before the actual cholera bacillus was identified, though Dr. Snow's work indicated something that had been learned and forgotten many times since Roman times, the impor tance of sewage-free drinking water. The Medical and Scientific Revolution

The benefits of science in reducing risk -especially through civil engineer ing then and now - and the growing medical skills, were often as obvious and

simple as Dr. Snow's remedy for the cholera outbreak, and were multiplied a hundred fold as the industrial, agricul tural, educational, and scientific revo

lutions progressed. In the 1600s, about 3% of the population lived to age 65; by 1850 about 30% survived to that age. Today, we have more than 80% of our population making it at least that far. None of this was achieved by accident. As scientific and medical discoveries

and improvements reduced the major risks of disease, life gradually became better and longer, rising from about 35 years a few hundred years ago,to almost 80 today, in our part of the world. The risks that face us today, for ex ample from things we normally might not think about, such as being over weight, poorly educated, drinking cof fee, as well as the obvious major risks like smoking, can be tabulated accord ing to how they shorten our lives on average, in terms of Loss of Life Ex

pectancy (See table). For example, if we compare a large population of male smokers with a comparable population

the human body could not survive any speed greater than that of a galloping

of non-smokers, the former die -on av

trick then regulation would do so. In the last century, this was attempted by passing a law requiring someone to walk with a red flag ahead of the mechanical monsters to give warning of their ap proach lest they frighten horses to death. We laugh at this now, but we tend to do similar ill-considered things based upon a similar fear and ignorance of technology, and distrust of science and our fellow human beings. When one of the injuries from X-rays was publicized

erage - 2300 days, or 6.3 years earlier. Bernard Cohen, a University of Pitts burgh physicist, carried out this evalua tion for a few present-day risks in North America. Few of the death-dealing phantoms of 1665 are present. Reducing Risk and Creating Risk The Impact of New Technology A technologically advancing society not only reduces risks, it creates them. This is unavoidable - even manufactur

ers of safety equipment suffer accidents. Certain groups of people make their livelihoods by pointing only to the newly created risk and stirring up anger and outrage, while they ignore the even more significant risk (usually) avoided. Everything is a trade-off in terms of risk. For example, medical drugs and hospi tals save many thousands of people from premature death, yet at the same time they cause a few deaths. The familiar big risks of the dark ages - mostly diseases which prematurely killed about 90% of the population, have been replaced by smaller risks - or we wouldn't be living quite as long although the public can often be per

Aged Ague & Feaver Appoplex & Suddenly Bedrid Blasted

Bleeding Bloody Flux Burnt & Scalded Calenture

Cancer, Gangrene Canker and Thrush Childbed Chrlsomes and Infants

Colds and Coughs Collick and WInde

Consumption & TIssIck Convulsion & Mother Distracted

Dropsle & Timpani Drowned

617 1545 5257 116 10 5 16 185 8 3 86 111 625 1258 68 134 4608 2036 5

1478 50

on the death of one Ironside Bruce in

1921, there was a loud cry to ban the use of them everywhere. I shudder to think where we would be today if this very narrow view of the harm of X-rays, without any consideration of the over whelming benefit, had succeeded. The first heart transplants by Dr. Christiaan Barnard were noteably risky procedures. Had he caved in to the loud criticisms

from even some of his colleagues, we could not have refined and learned from

these preliminary efforts. News of the cloning of Dolly, a sheep, in Scotland, decades before such a scientific breakthrough was expected, is possibly a more significant milestone

suaded that the reverse is true. This was

than insulin and antibiotics were in the

widely believed when electricity, the au

continuing fight against the many dis eases and genetic conditions that still kill millions prematurely. Instead of the good news, we are treated to a collage of apprehensive concerns about human cloning as though it would not only be seriously considered - which it isn't but that we would pass from egg to adult fiend immediately, with out any intervening stage 30 of nurturing, growth,care

tomobile and the steam locomotive were

introduced in the last century amid criti cism and noisy opposition because of fear of change. We were told that the electric light would blind us; people would be unable to sleep; and the birth rate would fall. Rumours circulated that

Table: Reported causes of death in London in 1665 Abortive & Stillborn

horse. If such rumours didn't do the

Executed

Flox & Smallpox Found Dead In Streets French Pox

21 2655

Frightened

20 86 23

Gout & Sciatica

Grief

Griping In the Guts Hanged Headmould Jaundles

Impostume Klld by Accidents Kings EvIII Leprosle Lethargy LIvergrown Meagram & Headach Measles

Murthered & Shot Overlaid & Staved

46 1288 7 14 110 227 46 86 2

14 20 12 7 5 45

The spellings above, are as they appeared in the original document. Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Palsle

Plague Plannet Plurlsle

Poysoned Quinsle Rickets

Rising of Lights Rupture Scurvy Shingles, Swinepox Sores, Ulcers

Spleen Spotted Feaver Stopping of Stomach Stone & Strangury Surfet Teeth & Worms

Vomiting Wenn

68596

or education. Period,

6 15 1 35 557 397 34 105 2 82 14 1929 332

politics, history - nurture - all make tyrants; clon ing can't. The issue of

98 1251 2614 51 8

what is ethical has be

come the most recent po litical game called: I want to be in the driving seat and making decisions be cause I am cleverer than

you. If I can't be, then how can Ifurther terrify the public aboutscience? The silly season is peren nially with us when we listen to well-intentioned

social saboteurs who

have great sincerity, great Continued overleaf 29

Risk Assessment, cant' fear, great imagination, but abysmal wisdom or common sense and a vicious

hatred and distrust of science.

Public Perception of Risk and Probability - No Perspective For all we pride ourselves upon be ing intelligent,emotions still play an ex ceptionally large role in how we see things. When we are told of a health risk, say from a miracle drug like aspi rin, we see only the victim (or alleged victim; there may not even be one) and ignore the millions who are unaffected, or who benefit. Perceptions are formed by how things are publicized. The late night news is a good example. We have an unfailing tendency to under-estimate or ignore large risks and to over-estimate and over-react to small ones. We have also learned that the easi

est way to capture anyone's attention and to motivate them to do anything -

Loss of Life Expectancy (LLE)for a few risks (Cohen 1990) Activity or risk LLE (days) Living in Poverty 3500 Being Male (vs female) 2800 Cigarettes (male) 2300 Heart Disease* Low Socio-economic status

2100

Working as a coal miner

1100

1500

Cancer*

980

30 lb. overweight Grade school dropout Sub-optimal medical care*

900 800

Stroke*

520

15 lb. overweight

450

All accidents* Alcohol* Motor vehicle accidents

400 230

Pneumonia, influenza* Drug abuse*

130

550

180 100

Suicide*

Air pollution*

Falls*

Fire, burns*

39 27

Coffee (2.5 cups/d)

Firearms*

Birth control pills Peanut butter (1 Tbsp/d)

11 5 1.1

Hurricanes, tornadoes*

Airline crashes*

Dam failures*

(*average over total population. The rest are those exposed)Cohen, B.L. 1990.

The Nuclear Energy Option.

An Al-

ternative for the 90s. Plenum Press. 30

especially the wrong thing - is either to terrify them or to get them very angry (preferably both), by carefully avoiding both perspective and facts. Too many litigatory decisions are arrived at be cause of emotional pleading and keep ing away from, even hiding, facts. A self-proclaimed psychic sued a hospital for loss of psychic powers af ter she had a CAT scan. How come she

didn't know this would happen if she was psychic? Then there were the al leged whiplash victims caught on cam era, climbing onto a bus after the crash! In this communication age, not only can knowledge be transmitted, so can misinformation, ignorance and fear. There is a law against shouting fire in a crowded cinema and terrifying people into mass panic, but there is no obvious equivalent for the global dissemination of comparable unscientific mischief by exaggerating risk, misusing statistics, or misinforming people about what is hap pening around them (as with Dolly). Unfortunately many 'public interest' and environmental groups do exactly this in order to arouse emotions, to get publicity, and to raise funding. Often they could care less about the public or the environment, but it plays well. The example of Daucus (See table), indi cates how simple information can be un scrupulously misused. It is transparent and obviously misleading, but it is none

look at when people die. Cancer is mostly a disease of old age, with few, but widely publicized, exceptions. When populations died in their 30s,40s and 50s, they didn't live long enough to develop cancer or the other old-age dis eases: stroke and heart disease. They were less healthy, not more healthy than we are. Now that we are living into our 80s, more of us are dying of cancer. Cancer is a disease of a healthy, ag ing society! Sure, it can be linked to technology - what can't - but don't blame technology; credit it. Remember this; it is not so much how we die as when. Cancer at 80, because technol

ogy is allowing us to live that long, is far preferable to tragically premature death at a much younger age from any cause. We are now at the stage where we will have difficulty pushing longev ity any further along (it just got a big boost from Dolly), but we can continue to make sure that fewer and fewer peo ple die prematurely. Killing cancers is getting easier, so pretty soon we will all have to die of something else. 'Human history becomes, more and more, a race between education and

(perceived) catastrophe.' H.G. Wells. We live in the best of all times from the

health and security point of view, and it is getting better at a faster pace than ever before. Despite this, we can be all-tooeasily persuaded that we live at the

theless indicative of the subtle unethi

threshold of the worst-of-all times with

cal process by which we can be very easily misinformed about risk. It ranks

catastrophe (meteorites, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions), epidemics (AIDS,

with

ebola virus, mad cow disease) and en vironmental destruction (global climate change) lurking around every corner.

the

valid

observation

that

drownings are most common where there are the biggest volumes of ice cream sales, and that the highest crime rates occur where there are the most law

yers. Ergo - should we then ban ice cream and lawyers? Today's Cancer Epidemic A less obvious example concerns the public's extreme concern over the sug gestion of a cancer epidemic. However, the public's concern does not extend to

All of which are more likely to be ad dressed successfully by science and technology, than by anything else. Our fears, which are mostly of low risk and imaginative scenarios - as fears tend to be- seem to have increased rather than

decreased with our ability to communi cate and to measure ever smaller risks. We allow ourselves to be scared over

the wrong things, by people who know ety - that of lung cancer from smoking even less than we do. The things that -and so we will also ignore it here. This kill us, do not seem to concern us quite cancer 'epidemic' is deliberately linked as much as they should; the things that with technological development, BMP, terrify us the most, are not the same radiation, pollution, environmental deg things that kill us today, but we can be radation, or whatever is the current tar persuaded that they will tomorrow. For get or mania of the moment. example, we were horrified by allega the most avoidable cancer risk in soci

It is true that cancer death rates are

still extremely high despite better diag nosis and treatments. Obviously there is a problem. But what is it? The key to understanding what is happening is to

tions (in this case, deliberate misinfor mation about childhood cancers) from the US Natural Resources Defense

Council (NRDC) about ALAR on apContinued overleaf

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Environmental Protection Agency Post Emergency Response Issues

Conference

Sheraton Washington Hotel, Washington,DC September 9-11,1998

Call for Papers On September 9-11, 1998, U.S. EPA is sponsoring a Radiological Post-Emergency Issues Conference at the Washington Sheraton Hotel, Washington D.C. This Conference is an international forum that will focus on issues of concern to emergency respondents following a significant radiological release that impacts public health, welfare, and the

environment. The focus of this Conference is on issues related to the post-emergency phase of the response.

□ Post-Emergency Management □ Regulatory Issues □ Agriculture and Land Use Issues □ Clean-up Levels □

□ Financial Resources and Funding Mechanisms; □

Protective Action Guidance

□ Political, Social, Psychological and Economic Impacts on Affected

Public Outreach Issues

□ Technological Issues □ Post-Emergency Responses to Actual Events/Exercises/Lessons Learned □

Public Health Issues

Communities

Please submit a short summary (approximately 300 words) of your proposed paper by February 28, 1998 (do not submit a full paper). Include your name, title, company affiliation, phone, fax, e-mail, and the above topic area(s) your summary addresses. Send summaries via mail, fax, or e-mail to SciComm (see below). The Technical Program Committee will review your summary and notify you of acceptance in March 1998. Your final 4 page paper in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) format will be due May 15, 1998. Please submit summaries/questions to and

Federal Emergency Management Agency

obtain a registration form from:

Health and Human Services, Center for Disease

EPA Post-Emergency Response Conference

Health Physics Society, Baltimore-Washington Chapter Nuclear Regulatory Commission United States Department of Agriculture

Control Sarah Wallis

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Bethesda, MD 20814 Phone 310-652-1900, Fax 301-652-7001

Organized by Office of Radiation and Indoor Air - EPA

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Lisa Ratcliff — Technical Program Chairperson Bonnie Wyvill - Registration Chairperson Miles Kahn ~ Publications Chairperson Ritchey Lyman — Exhibits Chairperson Madeleine Nawar — Publicity Chairperson

For more information, circle reply card No. 121 (See page 17)

Risk Assessment, cont' lems(a 1% rise in unemployment trans

Will Daucus Kill You?

Nearly all sick people have eaten daucus. It is estimated that 99.9% of all people who die from cancer fatalities have eaten daucus.

Some 99.9% of people Involved in auto accidents, ate daucus within 60 days prior to their accident.

Approximately 93.1% of juvenile delinquents come from homes where daucus are served often.

All daucus eaters born between 1900 and 1910 have wrinkled skin, have lost most

of their teeth and have brittle bones and failing eyesight. So Daucus is obviously dangerous - should It be banned? Not really. Daucus is the generic name for carrots, but it could equally have been any other target. (Taken, with minor changes,from the Miner Institute, N.Y.)

pies. No one had been injured by ALAR or was ever likely to be, but the public ity suggested that they were. This led to weeks of emotional agonizing across North America about the safety of our food supply in general. Our food supply has never been more assured, safer, or of such a high quality, but that fact got buried in the resulting inquisitions. The estimated loss to ap ple growers was about $500 million, and ALAR, which had become a political weapon to further the influence of the NRDC, was banned by regulation. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required by law to issue a ruling in 90 days or less, it takes from about 3 to 6 years for the FDA to rule upon the approval or not of a new drug. It eventually gave approval for the beta blocker drugs in 1981 (they were discovered in 1962) and the com missioner pointed to the 17,000 lives per

year expected to be saved. He missed mentioning that, to be sure that no one might be injured by this drug, over 100,000 people had died in the seven years waiting for the drug to be approved for use! Errors of omission are gener ally invisible. Errors of commission spawn lawsuits. It is unlikely that any of the relatively unknown 100,000 who died by neglect would launch a class action suit, but it would be certain that

if even one was obviously injured by a drug that may have been approved based upon obvious overwhelming benefit to thousands, there would be such a suit. Where are the silent medical ethicists?

Our values need revising. A very few of the hundreds of simi lar regulatory nightmares are based upon misleading perceptions, derived from the work ofTengs et ux. This also shows a few examples of where society re ceives its greatest value for money. In an evaluation of major risks throughout society, this study, looking at five-hun dred life-saving interventions and their cost-effectiveness, provided some inter 32

esting observations. Some interventions actually save society a lot of money. Many don't. For example, the money spent upon the various childhood immu nization programs,saves money over the long term compared with the cost of not having those programs; it does not cost, it pays, by saving society a bundle of money. Most preventive medical inter ventions are strikingly cost-effective, as they improve and save so many produc tive lives. Educational programs may be costly, but compared with the societal costs of ignorance and related poverty and mental ill health, there is no contest

- quality education is money well-spent and is returned in value many times over.

lates into several thousand deaths), we

need money and technology, not regu lations. Most acts and regulations, as we use them at the present time, are di rected at the wrong risks. They do not significantly solve health, safety or en vironmental problems; wealth,technol ogy and education do. As the Eraser In stitute has recently pointed out, most ex isting regulations drain the wealth of Canadian society (about $11,929 per family of four) without using it produc tively. This increases, rather than de creases, societal risk.

Money wasted, because we do not understand risks, is lives lost. How much is a life worth? How safe is safe

enough? Can anything be absolutely safe? How do we put a price on envi ronmental effects that we cannot define

adequately? What are the main risks? What is the best thing we can do to safe guard future generations? There is only so much money to go around. Money that is directed, with out adequate justification, at noisy, low risk or ill-defined issues is not only largely wasted, but it is denied to those endeavours today, where it could

Erom evaluation of more than 1200

achieve millions of times more benefit

scientific articles and government memos in the US, the Tengs study also indicated that environmental regulations are far less cost-effective in dealing with human health issues, than any other type of risk management policy, i.e. they cost too much for what they achieve. The environment is important, but how im portant and in what way? Do we pro tect it best by education and technology or by regulations and penalties? Until both we and our politicians find out

to us, and thus to our descendants and to the environment. The Earth Summit

at Rio in 1992, showed that poor coun tries cannot afford to address the envi

ronment unless we give them the money and the technology to do so. Many in terventions save few lives, as few lives

were threatened in the first place; nor (as far as that can be honestly evaluated) are they a significant threat to any part of the environment, yet they sidetrack vast amounts of money. They take lives which, we are doomed to waste a lot of because they drain money from more money for nothing. (Tengs, etux.(1995) deserving educational, medical and re Five-Hundred Life-Saving Interventions search programs. There will be thou and Their Cost-Effectiveness. Risk sands more until we learn to honestly rank all of the risks in our society and Analysis, Vol 15, No. 3, pp. 369-390.) The most hazardous, life-shortening learn where to get the biggest bang for the buck. condition by far - and the most envi H.G. Wells was right for the most ronmentally destructive force in any part. Human history does become, more society - is ignorance of the many is sues. Ignorance was the problem in and more, a race between education and catastrophe, the catastrophe of unrecog 1665 as it was in 1854. We have diffi culty believing that ignorance is still our nised ignorance. biggest problem, but it is. Ignorance Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote; allows us to be manipulated, misin Tt is curious to note the old sea-mar formed,terrified, angered and concemed gins of human thought. Each subsiding about all of the wrong things. Ignorance century reveals some new mystery; we goes hand in hand with poverty-another build where monsters used to hide them major killer - and unemployment. selves.' We've been far too lax of late, allowing others to breath new life into To counteract these real risks and other crippling and obvious social prob new monsters. â&#x2013; Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Biosolids Treatment

Joint project defines sewage biosolids stabilization criteria

Whatwould be the firstim

age to come to most peo

ple's minds when the name "municipal sewage treatment plant (STP)" is mentioned? "Dirty sewage - a major source of pol lution to our waterways". Wrong. Welltreated sewage effluent is an important source of nutrients for sustaining the ecosystem. Similarly, good quality treated sludge (will be referred to from hereon as biosolids) can be beneficially used on agricultural and forest lands as fertilizer and/or soil supplements. A recent questionnaire survey' car ried out by the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy (MGEE), es

weight) of biosolids per year. Of the 159 STPs who responded to the survey,92 STPs(58%)utilized their biosolids on agricultural lands; the remaining STPs either incinerated or disposed of their biosolids in landfill sites and

sludge lagoons. Some STPs employed more than one utilization/disposal method. STPs that utilize agricul tural land applications are, gener ally, smaller in flow capacity. The 159 STPs produced 275,000 met ric tonnes of biosolids annually. Only 34% of these biosolids were land applied, even though 83% of

timated that there are 275 mechanical

the biosolids met the current MOEE

Affairs (OMAFRA) have jointly pub

STPs in Ontario; collectively, they pro duce about 413,000 metric tonnes (dry

guidelines for land application. To ensure biosolids are safely and beneficially applied to agricultural

lished clear guidelines^ to control the

"Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy

lands, the MOEE and the Ontario Min

tion rates to control the amount of ni

istry of Agriculture, Food and Rural

trogen and phosphorus applied, and other site design and management con siderations such as separation distances

Table 1 -Important Types Of Pathogens In Sewage And Biosolids And The Clinical Conditions They Can Cause In Humans Main Classes

Genus or Subgroup

of Pathogens Bacteria

Species or Types 8+

Gastroenteritis

Clostrldium

Gangrene,tetanus,tood-polsoning Liver & kidney infection Skin and wound Infections, urinary tract

Leptosplralnterrogant

3+ 7+

Infections

Shigella

Vibrio Yerslnla

Typhoid, paratyphoid, gastroenteritis Dysentery Cholera, gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis

Salmonella

10+

Gastroenteritis, urinary tract Infections, pneumonia,etc.

Other enteric bacteria

(Escherichla.Klebslella, Proteus,etc) Viruses

42+

Gastroenteritis, eye Infections, respiratory Infections

Callcivlruses Including the Norwalk agent Enterovlruses Including

Gastroenteritis

60+

Gastroenteritis, colds,summer rash. eye Infections, meningitis, etc.

coxasckle- and echovlruses Rofavlruses Protozoa

Helminths

Glardia lamblla

3+ 3+

Gastroenteritis Gastroenteritis

Congenital malformations Amebic dysentery

Ancylostomaduodenale

Anemia

(hookworm) Ascarls lumbrlcoides

Fungi

Ascarlasis Taeniasis

Abdominal pain Diarrhea, abdominal pain Diarrhea, abdominal pain

no significant effect on soil pH;through controlled application rates and crop production, the mean levels of available phosphorus and metals in the soils re mained below the maximum permissi

in the raw biosolids to minimize health

risks to the people who may come into contact with the biosolids during land application/usage; to reduce odours in order to gain acceptance from the pub lic who live in the proximity of the STP, the farmlands and along the transporta tion routes; and, to reduce the putrescibles to minimize their potential to form odours and attract vectors (i.e., rodents, insects and birds) as the putrescibles become further biodegraded in the fields. It should be noted that metals are neither removed nor de

Candida albicans

Gastroenteritis, eye Infections, vaglnltis

Ctypfococcus neotormans

Pneumonia, meningitis

Table 11s reproduced from Reference(7 and 9)

OMAFRA'concluded that multiple ap plications of sewage biosolids have had

Stabilization of raw sludges before land application is necessary for three major purposes. To reduce pathogens

Liver Infections Gastroenteritis

Crypfosporldlum patvum Toxoplasmagondll Entamoeba histolyfica

(roundworm) Taenia saglnata(tapeworm) Toxocara(roundworm) Trichurls(whipworm) Sfrongyloldes(threadworm)

suitable crops and waiting periods, etc. The guidelines also require the biosolids to be "stabilized" before being applied. A 1995 field survey conducted by the

ble levels.

Adenovlruses

HepatlflsvlrusesA, B&E

The guidelines also include applica

from watercourses and residential areas,

Clinical Conditions Produced

Campylobacter

Pseudomonas

metals concentrations in the biosolids.

stroyed by stabilization processes. Mu nicipalities must implement effective industrial pre-treatment programs to

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

By Tony Ho* control metals concentrations in the biosolids.

While the purposes of stabilization are well understood and agreed upon by regulators and wastewater treatment professionals, the development of sci entifically sound and practical criteria and/or guidelines to measure stabiliza

Table 2- Rationales For Analyzing The Following Parameters By the Joint MOEE, Environment Canada - GL2000CUF and WEAO Study(7) Parameter Fecal Coiiforms

humans and animals.

Used by US EPA as an alternaflve surrogate parameterfo define pathogen reduction requirement for stablilzaflon of biosolids: 2xf 0® CFU/gm of TS for Class B biosolids and f xf 0^ CFU/gm of TS

tion is difficult. Table 1 lists some of

the important human pathogens known to be present in sewage and biosolids and the types of clinical conditions they can produce. Obviously, it is impracti cal to require monitoring for all these pathogens and next to impossible to set numerical guidelines for each individual pathogen. Furthermore, it is neither practical nor desirable to completely sterilize the biosolids before use.

for Class A biosolids.

Salmonella spp,& Shigellaspp. (Analyzed as one group by the use of the medium used for

clinical stool samples) Fecal streptococci

Traditional Indicator of water pollution,found In fhe Intestines of man and animals. Some strains are pathogenic which are resistant to commonly used antibiotics and have caused outbreaks of nosocomlal Infections In hospitals.

Somatic collphages

To determine fhe potential reductions of human pathogenic viruses In the treatment train. However, other phages may be more suitable when methods are developed.

Staphylococcusaures

Tested as a feasible alternative for clostridium perfringens In aeroblcally digested biosolids. If can cause enteric disorders (food poisoning) and there Is an Increase of Methlcililn-reslsfanf Staphylococcus aures In fhe environment.

Volatile solids(VS)

Traditional parameterfo indicate anaerobic and aerobic digestion process effectiveness. VS is also an estimate of organic content,

able in stabilized biosolids. The Water

sponsored a study to conduct an inten sive and critical literature review of the

current issues, practices, and experi ences with the development and use of

Inactlvaflon of enteric pathogenic bacferia. Used by US EPA as an alternative to fecal conforms requirement for Class A biosolids:3 MPI\l/4 gm of TS.

May be found In very large numbers in sewage and In anaerobic digestion processes. It may Increase In numbers. Can cause wound Infections. Would not be an Indicator for the presence of pathogenic bacteria but because offormation of environmentally resistant spores may serve as a suitable Indicator for impact of biosolids on weils surrounding application sites. More suitable than E. Coll for this purpose providing background levels do not occur in monitoring wells prior to spreading of biosolids.

difficulties are encountered when at

Environment Research Foundation"* has

Many pathogenic strains, Inactlvaflon of these pathogens during the wastewater treatment train could be used as a measure of

Clostrldlum perfringens

The presence of indigenous micro organisms in the stabilized biosolids can be beneficial to enriching the soils and to inhibit pathogen re-growth. Similarly tempts are made to set numerical guide lines for odour and putrescibility allow

Rationale

Traditional Indicator,found In large numbers,comprising many different species of bacferia found in fhe gasfrolnfesfinal tracts of

biosolids stabilization criteria.

high concentrations imply fhe potential for pufresclbliify, thusfhe potential to cause odours and attractions for vectors. Used by US EPA as an alternative surrogate parameterfor Vector

To facilitate biosolids application, most regulators opted to set design guidelines for stabilization processes instead of defining the criteria in terms of the quality of the biosolids before they can be safely land applied. MOEE'has defined the design requirements for mesophilic anaerobic and aerobic di gesters; design requirements for other processes such as lime stabilization, composting and thermophilic aerobic digestion are set on a case-by-case ba sis, often relying on the recommenda tions from equipment suppliers and en gineering consultants. At an expert meeting sponsored by

Following on the recommendation from the November workshop, a re

MOEE, Environment Canada and

Attraction Reduction:38% VS reduction.

Volatile Acids(VAs)

VAs are intermediate products In the anaerobic digestion process. High concentrations of VAs In digested biosolids may Indicate incomplete digestion and possibly upset conditions In the digestion process.

Oxidation Reduction Potential

ORP Is a qualitative measure of the state of oxidation in a process. ORP can be useful for Identifying the potential for odour emissions from biosolids such as hydrogen suiflde, VAs and sulphur based VOCs.

(ORP)

aerobic digestion are by far the most prevalent processes being used in On tario STPs. Their capital costs can be

component is to review literature and approaches used by other jurisdictions

more than 20% of the total investments.

to define biosolids stabilization criteria

search project' was sponsored by the

and regulate agricultural land applica tion programs. The second component is to survey the process design, opera tion and qualities of raw sludges and sta

Water Environment Association of

MOEE, Environment Canada Great

bilized biosolids in 14 Ontario munici

Ontario (WEAO)® in November 1995, to discuss research priorities in biosolids management,it was unanimously agreed that defining a set of practical "quality

Lakes 2000 Cleanup Fund (GL2000 CUF) and WEAO to define "quality

pal STPs. Eight STPs using the mes ophilic anaerobic digestion process and six STPs using the aerobic digestion process were selected for the study. Each STP was sampled twice be tween August and November 1996 and three STPs using the aerobic digestion process were sampled an additional seven times between January and Feb ruary 1997. Grab samples were col lected from before and after primary digestion, as well as after secondary di-

based" stabilization criteria was the

number one priority. Without these cri teria, it would be impossible to objec tively evaluate the acceptability of new technologies and innovative operating strategies and retrofits which may in crease the capacity of existing digest ers. Mesophilic anaerobic digestion and

based" stabilization criteria for biosolids

to be utilized on agricultural lands, and to identify opportunities for optimizing biosolids stabilization processes and management programs in the future. The project is being undertaken by CFt2M Gore and Storrie (C G&S)Ltd.

and the Medical Department of the Uni versity of Ottawa. The project com prises two major components. The first

Environmental Science c£ Engineering, November 1997

Biosolids Treatment, cont'd. gestion and from on-site storage facili ties where possible. Samples were pre served according to standard laboratory protocols, and cooled with freezer packs during transportation to laboratories for analysis. The samples were analyzed by Canviro Analytical Laboratories for alkalinity, ammonia, nitrates, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total solids, volatile

nary(unconfirmed)results are presented in Table 3.

In addition to the survey project, a workshop was held in November 1996 to review the best information available

at the time, for MOEE to set interim

"quality based" biosolids stabilization criterial MOEE is currently streaming its approval process for a biosolids uti lization on agricultural land program.

esses and other alternative processes. Most importantly, there was no re

ported incidence of occupational health, public health nor environmental con tamination problems associated with the biosolids utilization program which has been widely used in the United States for many, many years. A1 Rubin sug gested that good management practice at the storage sites, agricultural lands and during biosolids application are critical to protecting public health and reduc ing potential environmental problems

Bacterial

A1 Rubin and Mark Meckes of US

analyses were carried out by the Uni versity of Ottawa for fecal coliforms, fecal streptococci, salmonella-i-shigella (measured as one group), clostridium perfringens,somatic coliphages and staphylococcus aures. Dissolved oxygen, oxidation reduction potential, oxygen uptake rate, pH, temperature and other process operating data were measured

EPA were invited to provide the partici pants with a better understanding of the rationales and background to the stabilization criteria stipulated in Part 503. A1 Rubin explained that unlike the metals guidelines, the stabilization cri teria, e.g., the fecal coliforms and vola

in the field, at selected STPs.

assessment. Instead, the stabilization

Ministry of Health, stated that Ontario

The rationales for monitoring some of the key analytical parameters are summarized in Table 2. Study results are being analyzed and a final report will be released in late 1997. Some prelimi

criteria were developed based on what the experienced wastewater treatment professionals believe are achievable by well designed and operated mesophilic anaerobic and aerobic digestion proc

has had no incidents of human or ani

solids and volatile acids.

Raw Solids

Public Health Branch of the Ontario

2.0

Min

74 62

Aerobic

Anaerobic

Aerobic

participants came up with the following

Digested

Digested +

Digested+

recommendations for MOEE:

Biosolids

Solids

Stored Biosolids

• stabilization could not be satisfacto

1.5 5.6 2.7

1.9 7.2 4.0

1.2

1.8 3.1 2.3

2.3

1.8

41 59

53 63 59

47 63 55

8.0x10= 1.6x10= 1.3x10=

2.5x10= 1.0x10= 1.6x10=

3.2x10= 1.3x10' 8.0x10=

6.3x10=

2.5x10=

8.0x10= 6.3x10= 8.0x10=

I.OxW 2.4x10'

1.6x10=

6.3x10=

2.0x10=

5.0x10=

3.2x10=

1.0x10=

4x10= 2.0x10=

3.2x10=

6.3x10=

5.0x10=

1.0x10=

6.3x10=

4.0x10= 5.0x10=

1.3x10=

1.0x10= 1.0x10=

1.0x10=

Fecal streptococci Min

4.0x10=

1.3x10=

Max

2.5x10'

Median

1.0x10=

5.0x10= 4.0x10=

5.0x10=

1.6x10= 1.3x10=

5.0x10=

Clostridium perfringens Min

4.0xW

Max Median

4.0x10=

2.5x10= 2.5x10=

1.0x10= 3.2x10=

2.5x10=

5.0x10=

3.2x10=

Somatic coliphages (PFU/gmlS) I.OxKF

3.2x10=

1.0x10=

5.0x10=

3.2x10=

6.3x10=

1.0x10=

8.0x10=

1.6x10= 5.0x10=

8.0x10= 5.0x10=

5.0x10' 3.2x10=

2.5x10=

rect measures which include odour con

trol, vector attraction reduction, and

pathogen reduction could be used to characterize stability; •the criteria should not require complete stability and that this goal was not even desirable. The nutrients, organics and microorganisms remaining in ad equately stabilized biosolids are valu able for enriching the soils. Further more,the presence ofindigenous micro organisms in the biosolids is essential to inhibit pathogen re-growth; • Ontario should focus on developing streamlined regulation and criteria to encourage the use of biosolids on agri cultural lands, prior to developing guide lines for unrestricted use, e.g., use of biosolids in vegetable gardens. Good site management practices should be required at all application sites; •the approach used by the US EPA Part 503 which accepts either "process de sign based" or the equivalent "quality based" criteria should be adapted as the interim criteria. Revisions and improve ments can be made, from time to time

Staphyiococcus aures Min Max Median

were traced to normal spring runoffs, not biosolids. After several hours of pres entations and group discussions, the

Digested

Salmonella

Min Max Median

tosporidium in Guelph and Collingwood

Anaerobic

Units for ail the Microorganisms listed are in (CFU/gm of total Solids)

Min

mal disease traceable to sewage bio solids utilization on agricultural lands. Recently reported outbreaks of cryp-

rily defined directly at this time. Indi 0.3 5.8

Max Median

Ontario Biosolids Utilization Commit

based on scientific evaluation nor risk

Voiatiie Solids(%ofTS)

Fecal Conforms Min Max Median

solids. Patricia Powell,a member of the

tee (BUG) and a staff member of the

Total Solids(%w/w) Min Max Median

Stabilization at the STPs is, however,

necessary to reduce odours in the bio

tile solids reduction limits, were not

Table 3- Preliminary Resuits(i.e., Unconfimed)from the Joint MOEE, Envlranment Canada GL2000CUF and WEAG Study(7) Parameters(Unit)

including vector attraction.

3.2x10= 1.6x10=

1.0x10=

4.0x10= 2.0x10= 1.0x10=

4.0x10= 1.0x10= 1.0x10=

in the future, as more data and experi ence become available.

References available on request. ■

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Water & Wastewater Plants

Four steps to treatment plant confidence 0 you've been given this won derful horse and it certainly re quires lots of work. Your mother told you never to look a gift horse in the mouth hut you're not sure it can do the job or how long it will last and you still have to figure out how to pay for the oats. What do you do? Many municipalities in Ontario are faced with a similar dilemma. They are being given water and wastewater treat ment facilities to own and operate - and later on, no doubt, to expand or replace. They are not sure what they are being given, how well it does the job or what costs they will face in the future. How do they protect themselves from unfore seen problems and ensure that they have

the resources to correct them?

The following check-list outlines four steps which are essential to a real istic understanding of any complex plant. The first step is to collect all the in formation available which describes the

construction or operation of all aspects of the plant. Some of it may be hard to track down but it will not get easier as time passes. Much of the information is produced in response to contract requirements during construction and commissioning. After that, it is remarkable how refer

ence material disappears from the file as crises, major and minor,require "just a quick look" to get the specs for a pump or to see how things fit together. Com monly what is missing is the documen tation for minor changes: a small addi tion or replacement of equipment. An as built set of drawings and speci fications for original construction and subsequent alterations is an ideal start ing point. Failing that, get the names of the design consultants and ask them for copies; the cost is usually nominal. Copies of addenda to the specifications and any Change Orders or Site Instruc tions issued during construction are ex tremely helpful. The Building Depart ment may have a set of drawings on microfiche taken from the permit appli cation.

A property survey showing the loca*The author is a principal of Mutrie & Roiph,Architects. He had the assistance of William Margrave and Chuck Burdick of Margrave & Burdick Environmental Inc. and of Michael Breen of GE Capital. 38

Knowirtg what equipment you have, with up-to-date contacts for manufacturers' representatives, and operating and maintenance manuals, is the foundation of a responsible regimen for plant operation. Photo - Steve Davey tion of all structures relative to property lines will prove invaluable. The sur veyor who prepared the legal survey filed at the Land Registry office can help track down such a survey or prepare one if necessary. It should show all struc tures, paving,fences, catch basins, man holes, etc. and cost about $2000 for a 2 ha. site.

Information about all operating sys tems is essential. Most operators have a good record of major mechanical equipment; however, building systems are often not documented as well and

consequently not maintained as they should be. Knowing what equipment you have, with up-to-date contacts for manufacturers' representatives, and op erating and maintenance manuals,is the foundation of a responsible regimen for plant operation. Logs, test results and budgets paint a good picture of the plant and its prob lems. They will give some understand ing of the commitment of management, manpower and money which must be invested to maintain the services which

have been provided in the past and will be expected in future. The second step is to do a full sur vey ofthe facilities, their condition,their operational environment and their ca pacity to meet expectations now and in the future. This survey is best performed in consultation with, but independent of, the current operators. In that way a fresh

perspective is brought to the task which gives greater weight to any recommen dations which may arise from the survey. A review of the condition, useful life

and cost of replacement of the various components of the plant will form the basis for an assessment of the future

capital requirements for maintaining the services it provides. In addition, a re view of the condition and procedures for maintenance of those elements will pro vide an opportunity to assess the future operating requirements as well as to identify possibilities for improvement and efficiency. These assessments, to gether with the actual operating costs for supplies, energy and manpower, will give a complete picture of the capital and operating budget requirements to main tain the existing operational status of the plant into the foreseeable future. But the demands on any water or wastewater treatment system are bound to change. To develop an understand ing of the nature and timing of such change it is necessary to gather demo graphic data and a reasonable range of growth projections for the service area. Commonly these projections vary all the way from maintaining the status quo to the wildly optimistic prognostications of various community boosters. It is worthwhile to peer into the crystal ball long enough to extract some reasonable projections; the other options ensure that no plans will be made because "It isn't necessary," or "We can't afford it".

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

By Robert Mutrie*

The most important thing to know about your plant is the quality of its out put during all seasons and how it deals

Check-List 1. Gather information:

a) drawings and specifications of construc

with all variations ofraw and waste water

tion and aiterations;

input and compliance with all regulations b) survey of property; for the foreseeable future. A performance c) equipment iists with: evaluation provides an assessment of • manufacturers, overall plant performance, of each ma • modei and seriai numbers, jor process unit and the identification of • names of manufacturers' locai representa factors which limit plant performance. tives, • operating manuais, It usually includes a study of modifica • maintenance manuais; tions which could remove or reduce any d) maintenance and operating iogs; limitations to optimum treatment. e) operating performance tests; To ensure that high quality finished f) operating and capitai budgets. water or wastewater effluent is produced 2. Survey the faciiities: on a continuous basis, each major unit a) survey of process and buiiding compo process is evaluated to determine its

ability to achieve its desired perform ance level under current peak instanta neous flow requirements. If it is not meeting expectations and corrections

cannot bring it into compliance, expan sion of the unit process may have to be considered.

The possibility of some past dump

nents to determine their:

• condition, • usefui iife, and

• cost of replacement; b) review of maintenance condition and procedures for: • process equipment, • control equipment, • buiiding envelope, and • buiiding systems; c) review operating costs for:

ing of substances now considered ille gal is very real and the penalties are se vere. An environmental audit will pro

vide very important legal protection, particularly if there is any intention to alter the ownership.

The third step requires careful analyses of all the options for improv ing the operational efficiency of the plant against three yardsticks: equal or improved services to consumers, capi

• supplies, • energy, and • manpower, operating and maintenance; d) demographic information including; • plant design population, • current service area population, and • projected growth; e) performance evaluation; f) environmental audit. 3. Analyze alternative operating strategies considering: • services to consumers,

• capitai and operating costs, • short and long term goals. These alternatives should include:

• process methodology, • out-sourcing of process elements, • out-sourcing of maintenance services, and • remote control of plant operation. 4. Consider alternative forms of ownership and operation: a) municipaiiy owned and operated, b) municipaiiy owned and privately oper ated,

c) privately owned and municipaiiy oper ated, or

d) privately owned and operated.

tal and operating costs over a reason able time(say 10 or 20 years), and shortand long-term goals for plant capacity. It is important that operating staff be closely involved in this process, that

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Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Water & Wastewater Plants, cont'd. they have a clear understanding of the objectives and that they have incentives to contribute enthusiastically to the out come. It is equally important that out side consultants participate to bring the widest range of options to the exercise and to balance the practical limitations of a particular situation with a broad theoretical base and an understanding of current practice and expectations in other jurisdictions. During this step, any and all options should be rigorously pursued and meas ured by cost/benefit analysis but, as a

minimum, the following possibilities should be carefully explored: a)Process methods change over time;

review all process elements to consider changes which can improve output qual ity or operating efficiency. b)Certain elements of a process may be done at less cost by others or collec tively by a group; treatment and disposal

of process wastes and sophisticated laboratory testing now required for monitoring heavy metals, organics and disinfection by-products, for example. c) Maintenance of all plant equip-

ment or of specialized items such as stand-by generators or building services can be done by a private contractor or a neighbouring plant.

d)Treatment plants can be monitored and operated remotely by engineering consultants or in groups. The fourth step, and the final one, is the most difficult because it can in

volve substantial change but it offers exciting possibilities for municipalities and their employees. To realize the maximum benefits this step must be approached with open minds and imagi nation.

The traditional approach of munici pal ownership and operation is familiar to all. However, it would be worthwhile

to list its strengths and weaknesses so as to measure them against the alternatives. Private ownership, at first glance, implies a loss of control of the facilities as well as freeing up substantial amounts of capital. The trick is to structure the ownership in such a way as to maximize the capital recovery while retaining con trol over the decisions that matter, i.e.

the ones that bear on the quality of the output and the flexibility to adapt to fu ture change. For example, the owner ship of treatment plants can be vested in an entity having only 1% of the shareholding in the hands of the munici palities but all of the voting shares. Another alternative would be a co-op erative of municipalities which would arrange for private financing in much the same way as housing co-operatives have been operating for years, with no loss of control.

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Consideration of private operation adds the dimension of staffing to the basic objectives of private ownership. An operations contract should be struc tured to involve present staff, allow for a range of experiences for staff and the efficiencies of specialist activities. Again, these attributes can best be attained by a group of municipalities acting together or with a private contractor. When considering private ownership or operations, keep in mind the follow ing ways to improve your bargaining position: a) Get together with others to form a group, b)Know as much as pos sible about your facility and its costs, c) Define future options and their con sequences in any agreement. Now that you have completed the four steps, your Clydesdale hasn't tumed into a racehorse but you should certainly know what it can do and you may have enough oats left over to buy a pony. â&#x2013;

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Phone: 334-283-6555

Toil Free: 1-800-363-7886

Fax: 334-283-7299

Fax: 905-858-0428 Fax-Back!: 1-800-555-5977

For more information, circie repiy card No. 126(See page 17)

Site Remediation

Uniroyal Chemical's remediation project meets or exceeds expectations and treatment system, in order to pre vent off-site migration of contaminated groundwater. This system consisted of

GROUND SURFACE CAHAGAOGUE CREEK ICR BEDS OF mt UPPER AOUtFER

(UAi)

two MA extraction wells, PWl and r.-,-. miDLE BEDS OF THE UPPER AQIRFER

y--

PW3, and a groundwater treatment fa cility consisting of ultraviolet(UV)oxi dation, and granular activated carbon (GAC) polishing. A third extraction

(UAs)

Bomu BEDS OF WE UPPER AOUIFER

(UAJ) UPPER AOUTARD-

(UAT)

- UPPER AOmTARD

(UAT)

well(PW4)and additional treatment ca UPPER mMROPAL AOUfER

pacity were added in 1994.

(yu)

Once the MA was contained beneath iMNtOPAL AOUTARD

(UAT) LOWER MMQPAL AOUFER

(yp LOWER KUiOPAl AOUFER

LORER AOUTARD -

(yL)

(LAT)

LOWER AOUTARD

(LAT)

fRACrURED BEDROCK AOUFER%

FRACTU^ BEDROCK AOUFER

(fBA)

(FBA)

figure 1 SCHEMATIC STRATIGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS HYDROGEOLOGIC UNITS UNIROYAL CHEMICAL LTD.

UniroyalChemicalLtd.manu

Elmtra, Ontario

toluene, were detected in the Creek(be

low provincial water quality standards) downstream of the site.

Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA)carried out a feasibility study in 1994, which focused on different op tions available for the containment of the

factures and supplies a wide range of organic chemical products such as crop protec tion chemicals, polymers and specialty chemicals used in the agriculture, plas tics, and rubber industries. Uniroyal has operated its facility in Elmira, Ontario since 1942. Prior to 1969, wastes were

disposed of on-site, which was common practice at the time and was done with the acceptance of the governing envi ronmental authorities.

the site, the next step was to evaluate potential remedies for the UA. Contain ment of this aquifer was necessary as traces of some compounds, including

Aquifer (UA) and Municipal Aquifer (MA). The relationship between the aquifers is shown schematically in Fig ure 1. The MA was formerly a source of drinking water supply for Elmira. The UA discharges to Canagagigue Creek, which rans through the centre of the site. Canagagigue Creek is a tributary of the Grand River, which supplies a portion of the drinking water for the Kitchener-

UA. An extensive groundwater analyti cal database had been collected histori

cally, and this information was used to narrow down the primary source ofcon tamination in the UA. Based on an

analysis ofcontaminant concentrations, it was determined that the most contami

nated portion of the site was located in the southwest quadrant of the property. CRA estimated that, if the UA ground-

Waterloo area.

water in this area was contained, 95 to

In January 1992, Uniroyal com menced operation of a MA containment

98 percent of the contaminant mass loading to the Creek from the UA could

This historic practice of waste disposal caused soil and groundwater contamination. The main contaminants are

PRIMARY THnATMliNT

N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA),volatile organic com pounds such as benzene, tolu

TERTIARY TREATMEffT

SECONDARY IKiiATMBNT

UA Timer

I'etMl Tank

ene and chlorobenzene, site

L'krtuiMOALT

specific compounds such as aniline, carboxin, mercapto-

QAC

Nimncailuii uv/oÂ»

Tink

benzothiazole, and basic com

pounds such as ammonia. The local hydrogeology at the Elmira site is fairly com plex, and consists of several aquifers and aquitards. Of pri mary concern is the Upper 'Project Engineer, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates ^Senior Environmental Engineer, Uniroyal Chemical Ltd. "Senior Project Engineer, Uniroyal Chemical Ltd. 42

LNAPl.io Ofr-siie

I AaivalcdSl^c Return

txtpuwl Upper Aijuliei Gmtindwaicr RxirH-tiutt Wells

lufllviptl Ai|uir<i NUill

11) Stuilge Sloiuye/Ulipuail

Muntdpel Aguircr

flgure 2 UPPER AQUIFER CONTAINMENT & TREATMENT SYSTEM Uniroyal Chemical Ltd. Elmira, Ontario CRA

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

By B. Polan\ J. Merriman^ and R. FobeP be eliminated.

TtnCM. CHEEK lÂŁVÂŤl.

After evaluating several containment options, such as installing a vertical con

UWDEBCHOUNP FOHCEMW FROU nO

tainment wall or tile drain, CRA decided that shallow extraction wells would be

effective in containing this portion of the site.

After selecting the type of contain ment, the next task was to design a sys tem to treat the groundwater to criteria that would be acceptable to allow dis charge of the treated water to the Creek. The presence of numerous contaminants in the groundwater, and expected high

TANK BUUWC 20A

-UVAWDATiaN C POUSHHC

influent concentrations of ammonia(up to 300 mg/L) made the design of the treatment system challenging. Uniroyal and CRA developed the concept by conducting bench-scale treatability studies. The treatment sys tem consists of three phases of treat ment; primary (GAC); secondary (bio logical treatment); and tertiary(UV oxi

figure 3 ON-SITE GROUNDWATER TREATMENT - UA UNIROYAL CHEMICAL LTD.

Elmira, Ontario

Biological treatment was considered ure 3. Once the system was designed, an integral part of the process due to the it was necessary to seek approvals to presence of high ammonia concentra construct and operate the system from dation). A process flow schematic of tions. Bench-scale testing of aeration the Ministry of Environment and Energy the system is shown in Figure 2. The systems showed that nitrification (the (MGEE) with input from local govern development of this treatment system oxidation of ammonia to nitrate) was ments, various regulatory agencies, and process is described below. inhibited by the presence of nitrifica concerned environmental groups. This tion-inhibiting contaminants in process involved lengthy discussions the groundwater, such as with these groups. The main focus of On-Site Groundwater Containment carboxin, aniline, and these discussions was on establishing and Treatment - Upper Aquifer mercaptobenzothiazole. When effluent discharge criteria that would Flow Rate: Average* the concentration of these com protect the Creek. Other concerns were 67 US gallons per minute pounds was reduced by GAC raised regarding how to monitor the ef 35,215,200 US gallons per year pretreatment, successful bio fectiveness of the containment system, Containment: logical treatment could be ob and to address the impact of areas of the 10 upper aquifer extraction wells tained. This led to the GAC site which were not contained by the UA LNAPL (Light non-aqueous phase liquid) primary treatment, and second CS. After approximately six months of collection trench ary nitrification treatment proc discussion, a Certificate of Approval(C 6 continuous groundwater level monitors ess design. of A)for the UA CS was issued by the 3 continuous creek water level monitors Containment Efficiency: The only significant con Ministry. 95% to 98% of upper aquifer taminant remaining after GAC After receiving the C of A, detailed contaminants currently discharging to and biological treatment was design drawings were prepared and con Canagagigue Creek NDMA. The discharge crite tractors and equipment suppliers were Pretreatment: rion for NDMA was quite strin selected. Construction of the UA CS Upflow carbon adsorption tower gent (0.14 parts per billion or began in April 1996 and was completed Ammonia Treatment: ppb), and based on the maxi by December 1996. Uniroyal acted as Nitrification tank mum expected influent level of the general contractor for the project. 270,000 US gallons 400 ppb, reductions of4 orders The UA CS has been in operation 2 to 3 days retention time of magnitude were required. since January 1997. The performance Final Treatment: UV/oxidation and activated carbon Uniroyal had been using UV of the system over this period has met Treatment Efficiency: oxidation for NDMA contained or exceeded expectations. Effluent re 99% ammonia removal in MA groundwater destruction quirements have been consistently met 99.97% NDMA removal with good success, so the terti for all 18 primary contaminants, with the Capital Cost: $4,000,000 ary treatment process of UV exception of minor exceedances for to Instrumentation Cost: $700,000 oxidation was added to com tal phosphorous(a basic element added Distributed control system (DCS)- over plete the treatment train. to the groundwater during the nitrifica 100 monitoring/control points The system of extraction tion phase of treatment). First year analytical monitoring, operating wells and associated treatment The U A CS must continuously main & maintenance costs $2,137,000* system is collectively known as tain groundwater levels below the Creek Annual analytical, monitoring, operating & maintenance costs $1,708,000* the Upper Aquifer Containment water level to be effective at protecting System, or UA CS. The final the Creek. This ensures that UA ground*lncluding municipal aquifer containment alignment consisted of ten ex water does not discharge into the Creek. system. traction wells, as shown in Fig Continued overleaf

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Cover Story - Ecological Engineering

Power to the people from the water wheel

Thanksto Paul Bromley and his Pedley Wheel,even low income rural communities worldwide can now

generate light and power. Bromley runs a UK con servation trust in which "history and nature exist in perfect harmony". After building the wheel, he turned his thoughts to micro hydroelectric power;the wheel became a test-bed for his own experiments and experimental turbines designed at the Brit ish universities of Nottingham-Trent,Cambridge,Durham and Lancaster.

Now, the Pedley Wood Conservation Trust is helping the villagers of Matigahatanne in Sri Lanka to produce their own electricity. A small turbine provides nearly two kilowatts of electricity,enough for the daytime needs of a regional school, teaching science to its pupils, and,in the evening,for domes tic appliances and electric lights of 20 households. The Pedley Wheel was built at the village of Adlington, near Macclesfield, northwest England, and next to a brook that has a flow of 70 litres a second and a fall of three metres

- much less than the fall required by existing micro hydro electric plants available at affordable costs to villages of the developing world. Over six months an operational wheel had been designed, its 12 revolutions a minute converted into 1,000 by transmit ting its drive shaft the "wrong" way through an old Ferguson tractor back axle and gearbox and adding a simple generator to produce DC (direct current) electricity which is suitable for little else than for charging batteries. AC(alternating cur rent) was needed for community lighting and that required the wheel to turn at a constant speed, a seemingly impossible demand.

Pedley teamed up with Dr. Nigel Smith, a lecturer in elec trical engineering and electronics at Nottingham-Trent Uni versity. The result was a control box capable of regulating the speed of the wheel, regardless of the weight of the water pass ing over it and the capacity to generate alternating current. There are already a few companies able to provide micro hydro turbines but the equipment is of such a high techno-

Uniroyal Chemical's remediation project meets or exceeds expectations - continued from page 43

The development of a control strat egy for the UA CS has involved detailed analyses of the hydrogeologic response of the UA to pumping,and the influence of Creek water levels on groundwater levels. Significant changes in the Creek elevation can occur quickly, and the sys tem must be capable of responding to these changes. Uniroyal monitors six continuous groundwater level recorders and three continuous Creek water level

Paul Bromley making adjustments to the water flow to the Pedley Wheel. Photo - Anna Purkiss

logical standard and constructed from precision-made com ponents, that it is too costly and could not be made, installed or looked after by people with ordinary skills. The Pedley Wheel generator is the logical alternative, par ticularly as it can deliver mechanical and hydraulic power as well as electricity. For more information, contact: The Pedley Wood Conservation Trust, Pedley House, Adlington, Chesh ire, United Kingdom, SKIO 4LB.

and Uniroyal are involved in extensive tifying progress in remediation in vari monitoring of the system, as well as ous locations where contaminants are monitoring and assessing improvements present or discharged into the Creek. to the Creek on an ongoing basis. These The MOFF and local governments tasks include hydraulic monitoring, and agencies, as well as the general pub treatment system effluent monitoring, lic, are kept abreast of site developments and Creek water quality monitoring. through monthly meetings of the Uniroyal also conducts a yearly bio- Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee monitoring program, involving placing (UPAC). Monthly and annual environ caged clams and leeches at various lo mental reports are circulated as required by the C of A. cations in the Creek. The clams and The UA CS has aided Uniroyal in leeches are capable of bioaccumulating trace quantities of contaminants such as completing a significant phase of envi chlorophenols,dioxins and furans which ronmental remediation at this site. Both are not detected in the surface water, but the MA and UA containment systems may be present at levels below normal go a long way to minimizing the impact

recorders to monitor and control the

detection limits.

degree of hydraulic containment. The UA CS will be operating well

leeches are left in the Creek for three

weeks, and are later analyzed for con

For more information

into the forseeable future. Both CRA

taminant concentrations, to aid in iden

circle reply card No. 127

These clams and

of historic contamination on the sur

rounding environment.

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

TEAM-1 Environmental Services Inc. would like to thank

Laidlaw Environmental Services Ltd. and all others who assisted us in the

efficient handling ofHamilton's toxic Eire!Environmental occurrence on July 91997.

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Office:(905) 383-5550 Qjjlsr' Fax:(905) 574-0492 For more information, circle reply card No. 128(See page 17)

Oil/Water Separation

How they treat road runoff'Down Under'

The Old Northern Road at

Albany Creek in Pine Rivers Shire Council area is a major arterial road servicing the north-west of the greater Brisbane area,

in Australia.

Queensland Main Roads Department

recently improved the road by widen ing it to four lanes. The project has also incorporated several bus stops and po lice enforcement bays. A traffic count undertaken during 1996 found 17,300 vehicles per day used the road. With increasing environmental regu latory pressures, there has been a greater

the first thirty minutes of a storm dur

has wetlands downstream.

ing 1997. Pollution coming off roads in storm-

graded prior to our works. Our aim in

water includes gross pollutants (mainly litter), sediments and dust, seeds, hydro carbons, metals in dissolved and

particulate form,plant nutrients and bac terial contamination.

The limited sampling at Pimpama revealed levels of metals, particularly aluminum, iron, copper, lead and zinc in dissolved and suspended solids, as well as hydrocarbons. The quantity of these contaminants is mainly dependent on the traffic level, the climate and sur

awareness of the impact stormwater can have on receiving waters,including that

rounding land use.

from roads. Australian research of diffuse runoff

ern Road is directed by curb and chan nel into drainway side-inlet systems,

from roads is limited; however, work

prior to discharge at four main locations.

undertaken by the University of New South Wales,a Federal research agency,

Allan Robinson of Main Roads, was

and various State Road Authorities, has determined that the levels of contami nants in runoff warrant attention.

The Main Roads Department sam

pled runoff from the Pimpama River bridge, on the Pacific Highway, during

Stormwater runoff from Old North

"The creek was already fairly de relation to stormwater quality was to minimize further degradation and, if

possible, improve the situation." CSR Humes, Humeceptor™ non-

scouring oil and sediment interceptors were incorporated into the drainage de sign, prior to the four discharge points, to facilitate a high level of stormwater treatment.

The catchment was split up into smaller,impervious drainage areas rang ing from 0.95 hectares to 2.0 hectares. This follows the principles of "atsource" control which are proving to be more effective than conventional "end-

of-line" techniques.

The larger of the units collected ap proximately 10 cubic metres of sediment during the six month construction pe

involved with the stormwater design for the project. He said: "We were con cerned about the stormwater discharge

riod, whilst one of the smaller units col

from the carriageway,enforcement bays and bus stop areas. A large part of the

lected about four cubic metres from a smaller area. The other two units were

catchment drains directly into the head waters of Cabbage Tree Creek, which

not connected until latter stages of the

project, but have already collected a quantity of material. The sediment captured to date has been quite diverse, comprising coarse, as well as fine sediment, even silts and

clays, typical of construction sediment. During service, it is expected that the majority of sediment will be finer and

Proven Performers Pumps-

washed off in lower concentrations. It

is also expected that these "in-service" sediments will have higher concentra tions of contaminants such as metals,

V-.

• Non-clog and vortex — up to ZOOhp • Grinder — 2hp to I6hp • Effluent and ejector J 4/lOhp to 3hp

nutrients, oil and grease.

Mixers— • Submersible

"Humeceptor was selected because it has been extensively tested and proven to remove "priority" pollutants. This system is better than traditional meth ods which are prone to "flushing out" during the bigger storms," Allan

• Top and side entry

Robinson said.

Aerators—

"The cost of the structures may seem

• Submerged and floating

high at first glance, but when you take into consideration whole of life cost and

ControlPanels—

their efficiency, they are cost-effective.

• Complete design

"These devices are intended to be

permanent pieces of infrastructure

and manufacture

Look to ABS Pumps for all your pumping and mixing requirements. FOR

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which will be in service well in excess

of twenty years. The low maintenance - A company in the Cardo Group

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costs also make the whole of life cost

analysis attractive." Humeceptor™ was designed by Stormceptor of Canada. For more information,

circle reply card No. 130 46

For more information, circle reply card No. 129 (See page 17)

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Fax number (

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Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Consultants/Labs Rolls-Royce turbine system wins environmental award simultaneously without water or steam injection over a wide operat ing range and is compatible with the compact nature of the industrial aeroderivative gas turbine.

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within this system to minimize the lev els of CO before dehvery to the com pressor turbines. The DUE combustion a memorial award in his name at the Woodstock Collegiate Institute from which system reduces NOx and CO emissions to less than 25 volume parts per milhon he and his wife graduated in 1947. The award is to be given annually to the graduat (vppm),compared with 230 vppm NOx ing student demonstrating exemplary quali and 70 vppm CO in a conventional dif ties in fellowship, scholarship and sports The Rolls-Royce RB211 OLE was the first fusion-type combustion system, with no manship and warranting the respect of his aeroderivative OLEgas turbine In the world loss of engine performance. or her class as an all-round "good person". to enter service. The OLE system is at the heart of Anyone wishing to make a contribution Rolls-Royce Industrial and Marine Gas in Bill's name to this award, should send a Rolls-Royce's latest business develop Turbines has gained a 1997 Queen's ment,ajoint venture with a Russian aero cheque made out to the "Woodstock Colle Award for Environmental Achievement engine company; Lyulka Rolls-Royce giate Institute", to the Principal of that Insti for the development of a dry low emis will produce the ALB 1ST engine with tute at 35 Riddell St., Woodstock, Ontario, N4S 6L9. A charitable receipt will be is sion (DEE) combustion system for in DEE technology intended initially for sued by the Institute for income tax purposes. dustrial aeroderivative gas turbines. use in Russia's massive gas industry. Eollowing a four-year multi-million pound sterling development program, Water Supply and Treatment the system has been installed on the Wastewater Treatment company's industrial RB211 engine and Arsenic Removal the system has won nearly $200 million Iron and Manganese Removal of business worldwide.

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Toxicity tests undertaken by H.C. Bai ley(EVS Environment Consultants)and L.Young (Hatfieid Consultants)on pulp and paper mill effluents included the

Environmental Science <& Engineering, November 1997

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. Calgary, AB T2E6P2 : Tel ;(403)291-3077 Fax;(403)291-9468

Technical University of Nova Scotia sci entist D.H. Waller and colleagues from

LOR 1B1

ISO

water from five sites in Nova Scotia to

evaluate drinking water treatments.

Strong relationships were evident for these samples between raw water total organic carbon (TOC) and both colour and trihalomethane formation potential. As reported in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, TOC removals by dissolved air flotation followed by fil tration exceeded removals by direct fil tration or settling- filtration. Colour re moval by dissolved air flotation was consistently higher at all sites. Bioconcentration of

Hydrophobic Organics

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Laboratory experiments were conducted by R.M. Sallenave (University of Guelph) and K.E. Day (National Water Research Institute) to examine the up take and bioconcentration of 2,2',4,

4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (HCBP), a model hydrophobic organic compound, in lotic periphyton. The rate of accu mulation was highest in the first three Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

R&D News

Consultants/Labs

hours, and steady state was reached within eight days. The results of this

CIVIL/ ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS

study, described in the Water Quality Research Journal of Canada, suggest that lotic pheriphyton provide a large surface area for adsorption and uptake of persistent hydrophobic compounds and could greatly influence the fate and transport of such compounds in lotic

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streams.

Hydraulic Flow Patterns in Lagoons University of Sherbrooke scientist R. Leduc and a Philippine colleague con ducted a tracer study in winter at the Sainte Julie, Quebec lagoon facilities to ascertain the hydraulic flow character istics. The lagoon system is a continu ous discharge type consisting of three facultative aerated lagoons and a matu ration pond operating in series. The first three are provided with bottom air diffusers, the number of which decrease

from the first to the third lagoon. The results, described in Water Science and

Technology, show the presence of stag nant or dead regions within the lagoons, reducing their effective volume and hence the treatment efficiency that could

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Annual flow volumes and contaminant

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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

ment plant (STP) effluents were com puted by H.O. Schroeter (Schroeter & Associates)for 47 urban centres located

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CSOs 2 to 20%, and STP effluents 4 to 39%.

Put your professional card here For more information, contact Dr. H.R. Eisenhauer,Canadian Associa tion on Water Quality, Environmen tal Technology Centre, Environment Canada, 3439 River Road South, Gloucester, ON K1A0H3,Tel:(613) 990-9849, Fax:(613)990-2855.

- only $1,300.00 for a full year. For more information, cail Penny Davey at(905)727-4666.

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

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Gas detectors, cont'd,from page 27

(519) 664-1422

and solvents. MOS sensors cannot de

tect carbon dioxide or sulphur dioxide. The sensor is incapable of telling you what gas you have encountered or the concentration, only that the atmosphere may be hazardous to your health. Oxygen Sensors Oxygen sensors are the only true chemically-specific sensors(Figure 4). They are similar to the electrochemical (Wet Chem) sensors described previ ously. They are also susceptible to freez ing, are affected by altitude and have a nominal operational life of one year. Never use an oxygen sensor to detect toxic gases. It is true that a toxic gas will displace the oxygen in a confined space. However, it takes 60,000 PPM of any toxic gas to lower the oxygen from 20.9% (normal) to 19.5% (alarm point). More importantly, 60,000 PPM of any toxic gas will kill you.

147 North Street West Wlngham, Ontario

(519) 357-1960

For more information, circle reply card No. 136

one used for the detection of combusti

ble gases. However, the MOS broad range toxic sensor is capable of react ing to a wide range of toxic gases in cluding carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, styrene, toluene, gasoline and many other hydrocarbons

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Circle the numbers below for FREE information on the products in the November

issue that interest you. 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133134 135136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150151

152153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167168 169170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184185 186187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218219 220221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286287 288289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303304

Part II- Choosing a Gas Detector-

305306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320321

will continue in our next issue.

322323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337338

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Literature Review For information on advertising in this section call ES&E at(905)727-4666. TEAM-]

Pmviding Emcry:cmy Response to Gtnvmmenl. hniustn,- <5 Transportation

24 HOUR EMERGESCY RESPOSSE

1-800-32-SPILL (7U5>i

SLUDGiCI rAMR-

Screen/CoinpacUir

Canada-wide emergency

Motionless Mixers The Statiflo motionless mixer is a vi

response

Ti:s ciovsh fiichcniesa mixer Uial

TEAM-I Environmental Services inc.

brings new gfiiciency ano cosisa-ylngs tolns process influsiries.

is a privateiy-owned and operated Emergency Response Company. We provide specialized services to ttie needs of government, industry and transportation. In ttie event of a low tiazard, low volume vs. fiigti fiazard, tiigfi volume occurrence,TEAIVI1 has the ability to deploy a highly

and efficient as well as minimum use

of dosing chemicals. Statiflo motion less mixers are commonly used in coagulation/flocculation,flash mixing of dilute polyelectrolyte, alum, caus tic, etc., pH control, disinfection/

trained team with state-of-the-art

chlorination/fluoridation/ozonation

equipment to rectify any situation on a 24 hour basis - Canada wide.

and other dilution and dispersion applications.

TEAWI-I Environmental Services

Statiflo Inc.

Circle reply card No. 180

Circle reply card No. 181

StrainPressÂŽ SiudgeCieaner

Trenchless pipeline renewal U-LinerÂŽ, from CSR Pipeline Sys

Reusing sludge means cleaning it first, and Parkson has a unique product for doing just that. The StrainPress SiudgeCieaner removes from primary or secondary sludge etc., the nonorganic solids, e.g. plastics, papers, rags, that may settle or float in downstream processes. These trash solids are then compressed and extruded as a dry product that can be disposed of with trash and screenings from other sources in the facility. The cleaned sludge can then be processed further to produce what the EPA has defined as "Class A sludge". Parkson Corporation Circle reply card No. 182

tems, is a trenchless rehabilitation

system designed to repair damaged potable water, sewer, gas and indus trial process pipeline. U-Liner is de formed at the manufacturing site and then reformed to conform to the

shape of the damaged host pipe. ULiner, made of HOPE, meets all

ASTM standards and specifications for deformed/reformed polyethylene liner pipe and is NSF certified for potable water. CSR Pipeline Systems Circle reply card No. 183

Specialty Gas Suppliers Catalogue

Concerned about corrosion? UniNG SYSTEMS

tal component of any inline mixing/ control system, incorporation of the Statiflo mixer allows rapid sampling

Stonhard has a complete line of cor rosion, abrasion and temperature resistant coatings and linings for con crete applications. Flooring systems with wear/chemical and slip resist ance for your production, warehouse, aisleway, locker room, washroom, and cafeteria areas. We also distrib

ute Plasite Protective Coatings which are designed for high performance protection of steel against corrosion. Inside and outside of tanks and proc ess vessels, equipment coating and structural steel protection are just a few of the applications. Stonhard Ltd.

Circle reply card No. 184

Membrane Technology in emergency relief operations, mu nicipal treatment facilities, pharma ceutical laboratories and a host of

other applications around the world. Zenon is setting new global stand ards in water and wastewater treat

ment. Zenon's revolutionary mem brane technology forms an absolute barrier to contaminants in any proc ess. There are more than 20 pat ents worldwide. Zenon

Circle reply card No. 186

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

SPECIALTY aAS

Whatever your requirements In specialty gases and gas mixtures, you can find it all in this catalogue. Air Liquide Canada, one of the largest specialty gas suppliers, presents a spectrum of products

CATALOGUE

and useful technical information.

You will also find typical and inno vative applications such as cali bration standards for environmen

tal monitoring. To order, call your nearest Air Liquide Canada sales representative. Air Liquide Canada Circle reply card No. 185

Wastewater pumping systems Gorman-Rupp has been manufactur ing pumps since 1933. lyiany of the innovations which Gorman-Rupp intro duced have become standards in the

industry. Our self-priming centrifugal T Series pumps were introduced nearly 35 years ago to meet the demand for a self-priming, solids handling sewage pump. Today, Gorman-Rupp is the un disputed leader in self-priming centrifugals. We manufacture a com plete line of above and below ground packaged lift stations as well as a full line of sewage submersible pumping systems. Gorman-Rupp of Canada Circle reply card No. 187

Product and Service Showcase For information on advertising in this section, call ES&E at(905)727-4666. Cost-effective

Custom-Engineered COg

NOx control

Neutralization Systems

SIGMA-ALDRICH*

VOST Stack emissions

sampling tubes

vosTzro Tsnax/Charcoal

Praxair has extensive experience in de signing and installing custom-engineered systems to meet any water treatment

existing burner zone. NO,,is reduced to

need. This experience includes both liq uid and gaseous CO, delivery systems that utilize a wide variety of injection techniques. Selecting the proper CO, injection equipment is based upon the specific requirements ofeach installation. For large basins or holding ponds,Praxair

atmospheric nitrogen (N,) by reactions with the hydrocarbon fragments pro duced by the substoichiometric combus

jection methods. These include the Sparger, the Diffuser System, the Dy

Reburn is a

control process which

reduces NO^^ up to 70% by "staging" the fuel injection into the furnace to produce a slightly fuel rich environment above the

can provide a variety of in-tank CO^ in

circle reply card No. 200

namic Mixer-Injector and the Valve Sys tem. All of Praxair's CO,injection sys tems are built from durable components, such as stainless steel, to provide lasting reliability. Praxair For more Information, circle reply card No. 201

Oil and grease interceptors

reconstructed without

tion of the reburn fuel.

Additional

overfire air is added to complete the com bustion process. It can be applied to vir tually any boiler design. EER Canada

For more Information,

Industrial pipes

Supelco's VOST air sampling tubes are designed to meet EPA SW-46 Method for the sampling of emissions for hazardous waste incinerator stacks. The high-pu rity adsorbents used in the VOST tubes provide consistently low background lev els. VOST 100 tubes are packed with 35/60 Tenax®TA that traps volatile and semivolatile compounds with a low af finity for water and methanol. VOST 200 tubes are packed with 35/60 Tenax®TA and 20/40 petroleum charcoal to trap the more volatile compounds. By placing these two traps in series during sampling you can collect up to 20 L of emissions. Sigma-Aldrich Canada Ltd. For more information,

circle reply card No. 202

Getting the red out with PipePac

digging

Stormceptor Canada has introduced the Pmceptor™ line of fibreglass reinforced plastic (FRP) interceptors. Designed to effectively treat process wastewater containing oil, grease, food waste and settleable solids, Proceptor™ interceptors provide benefits beyond front line oil and solids separation. Their cylindrical de sign enhances hydraulic performance and reduces the likelihood of resuspension during subsequent flows. Ideal for inter nal and external installation.

Stormceptor For more Information, circle reply card No. 203 58

rated material is then inverted, or turned

PipePac is a software that has merged 3EB (Three-Edge-Bearing),SAMM (Spangler & Marston Method of pipe design),CAPE (Cost Analysis of Pipe Envelope), and LCA (Life Cycle Analysis). Merging of the programs into one application has re sulted in a uniform interface, a single da tabase for each project, simplified use, reduced data entry, minimized errors, and standardized design process. The software enables the user to design the pipe instal lation, examine the design's embedment costs, and perform a life cycle analysis without having to re-enter any data, de termined from the previous step. PipePac is available free of charge from the On tario Concrete Pipe Association, and can

inside out, within the damaged pipeline.

be downloaded from their web site at

The Insituform cured-in-place-pipe proc ess, using liquid thermosetting resin tech nology, can be engineered to withstand the corrosive effects of a wide range of chemicals. The reconstruction material

is custom manufactured from polyester felt and formed into a tube that fits the

pipe to be rebuilt. Prior to installation, the tube is impregnated with the speci fied thermosetting resin. The resin satu

Insituform

For more Information, circle reply card No. 204

www.ccpa.com. OCPA For more Information, circle reply card No. 205

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Product and Service Showcase High-efficiency grit removai

Centrifugal blowers

Sequencing Batch Reactor

Illllii

The Fluidyne Hydro-Grit''^' System pro vides high levels of grit removal from

for new or retrofit installations.

Hoffman Multi-stage Centrifugal Com pressor and Exhausters are available for requirements to 45,000 CFM, at dis charge pressure to 25 psig or 19" Hg vacuum for air and gas service. Hoffman centrifugals have been operating with utmost reliability and efficiency in many diverse applications such as combustion drying, agitation, fluidizing, oxidation vacuum cleaning, sewage aeration, cool ing and pneumatic conveying for more than 60 years.

Fluidyne Corporation

Hoffman Industries of Canada

domestic and industrial wastewater. Per formance data demonstrates 95% re

moval of all grit particles 74 micron and larger at all flows up to peak design flow. The unit is free-standing, requiring no influent flow channels or concrete struc

tures. Low headloss across the HydroGriH''' and no moving parts in contact with the wastewater make the unit ideal

Fluidyne Corporation's Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) offers advanced wastewater treatment and biological nutrient removal without the need for

separate anoxic zones or clarifiers. The Fluidyne system provides lower operat ing cost and greater operational flexibil ity compared to extended aeration/con tinuous flow systems. Fluidyne SBRs have won State and National USEPA

awards for performance excellence. Fluidyne Corporation

Circle reply card No. 210

Circle reply card No. 211

Circle reply card No. 212

PCB-free Toronto

Total chlorine sensor

Modular UV Disinfection

Methods of moni

toronto hydro Great news for Toronto Hydro custom ers! Toronto Hydro and Eco Logic have joined forces to eliminate your PCB-contaminated material. Toronto Hydro's reputation as a leader in managing PCBs dates back to the early 1980s. In fact, we've transported more PCBs than any municipal utility in Canada - accidentfree. Ontario-based Eco Logic has de veloped an award-winning PCB-destruction process that converts PCBs into methane and other reusable products.

ECO LOGIC-C#0 Toronto Hydro

toring total chlo rine in process streams involve

the use of condi

tioning buffers prior to the sen sor. This method

Safe Water Solutions Moaei FH-lCisa

can be replaced

new, modular, high capacity disinfection system that incorporates significant ad vances in ultraviolet technology. The

with a new envi-

ronmentallyfriendly process that does not require the addition of buffering solutions. This new sensor monitors free residual and com

bined chlorine (chloramines) to give an immediate reading of the total chlorine concentration.

FroMiuent Fluid Controls

Circle reply card No. 214

Circle reply card No. 213

unit's disinfection chamber contains 18

60-inch long ultraviolet lamps. Reduced maintenance and minimal fouling are made possible by special sleeves and by the TH-1 C's unique turbulator flow pat tern. It is compact and ideally suited for use by mobile forces and in disaster re lief. Safe Water Solutions L.L.C.

Circle reply card No. 215

Complete mixing

EMVI

Low-range process turbidimeter

Hach Company

TEC

has introduced the Model 1720D

Low Range Proc

INTERNATIONAl TRADE FAIR

Ensuring that an effective environmen tal protection policy is put into practice in industry,commerce and administration is one of the most important factors to be considered in today's financial planning. ENVITEG is proud to present over 1,300 exhibitors, featuring the very latest de velopments available on the market. Dis cover the latest concepts in integrated technologies which can guarantee envi ronmental protection and energy effi ciency within the very heart of the pro duction process. Messe Diisseldorf Circle reply card No. 216

ess Turbidimeter, which offers im

Flygt 4600 Series Submersible Mixers are compact, direct-drive units whose principal advantage in BNR applications is flexibility; the flow can be pointed in any direction to minimize hydraulic losses and maximize the amount of en

ergy utilized for agitation. In anoxic zones, Flygt Banana Blade Mixers are an excellent choice because they provide gentle mixing and outstanding energy efficiency. ITT Flygt Circle reply card No. 217

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

proved low-end performance and a completely re designed body and internal bubble trap that provides 30% faster response to sample changes. Instrument range is 0 to 100 NTU, and accuracy is Âą2% of reading or Âą0.020 NTU(whichever is greater)from 0 to 30 NTU. Instrument resolution is 0.001 NTU.

Hach Company

Circle reply card No. 218 59

Product and Service Showcase Self learning motion sensors

Motion-Expert safety devices are de signed to protect moving or rotating equipment by detecting loss or reduction of motion. Externally mounted on non magnetic troughs, they detect movement of shaftless conveyor spirals or other ob jects at speeds from 2 ft./min. and fre quency of 1 pulse every 2 min. Sensors and controllers, with self-calibration ca

pabilities, are encased in compact enclo sures powered by 24 vdc. These motion sensors are easily installed and require no maintenance. Degremont Infiico

Circle reply card No. 219

Floating aerators

Pipe within a pipe

Each U-Liner® coil is manufactured to

specifications for each project by CSR Pipeline Systems. U-Liner is made of pure, high density polyethylene. It is nonjointed for leak proof, unrestricted flow, and is designed for direct burial. Its de sign life is 50-h years, it is highly resist ant to harsh chemicals and is available from 6' to 18' diameters.

CSR Pipeline Systems Circle reply card No. 220

Framco Oxygun™ SelfAspirating Float ing Aerators provide an efficient method of aerating tanks, basins, and lagoons for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. The low cost, easy-to-install aerators disperse atmospheric air below the water surface using a unique impeller and diffuser system. An electric motor drives the self-cleaning maxi flow impeller,forcing liquid at high speed past three air ports. ABS Pumps

Circle reply card No. 221

Water resources management

Vortex mixing system

matically adjusted to keep the pressure drop constant over the filter. Constructed in a rectangular, lateral mode,the Toveko CX sand filter is easy to install, minimiz ing space requirements. Reduced pump energy consumption will come as a re

Water quality and the protection of water resources are recognized as funda mental environmental issues facing society. Colder Associates provides wa ter resources planning and management services to a broad range of institutional and industrial clients on projects involv ing the development of major reservoirs, hydroelectric facilities, municipal and industrial water supplies, recreational

sult. Some installations can even make

facilities, residential communities, con

do with free fall. Dagex Inc. Circle reply card No. 222

servation areas. Colder Associates

The JetMix Vortex Mixing System can be used in bio-solids storage, anaerobic digesters, flow equalization, aerobic di gesters with supplemental air, leachate systems, and other situations where sol ids suspension is important. Benefits of using the JetMix system include; Inter mittent operation saves up to 90% in power consumption; no need for sched uled maintenance on equipment inside storage tanks; multiple tank mixing us ing a central pumping facility; the opera tion is not dependent on tank levels. Greatario Engineered Storage Systems

Compact sand filter The Toveko CX sand filter is de

signed to cope with any load, whether continu

ously high or oc casionally peak ing. Mechanical purification of the sand is very effi cient and the sand turnover rate is auto

Wet abrasive blasting

♦totbo

The Torbo method of abrasive blasting, when used to remove coatings and painted surfaces, including lead and as bestos, prevents the spread of airborne particulate material. Lead in the air lev els is consistently below EPA/OSHA Action Levels. With the Torbo method, contaminated dust emissions are reduced

by 95%, and abrasive consumption by up to 50% compared to dry blast systems. Restoration Environmental Contractors

Circle reply card No. 225 60

Circle reply card No. 223

Circle reply card No. 224

Economical pre-treatment of

Residential Backflow

industrial wastewater

Prevention meter

Proceptor™ ef

Schlumberger's

ficiently

T-10 Residen

moves oil and

tial Backflow

suspended sol ids for easy dis posal from in

Prevention me

dustrial

measurement

and

commercial effluents. Proceptor inter ceptors are constructed from inert com posites to prevent leakage and exfiltration of stored contaminants into soil and

groundwater. They provide immediate payback when considering soil and wa ter remediation cost. Their efficiency exceeds existing environmental regula tions, codes and acts, by reducing waste contaminants to acceptable limits. Stormceptor Canada Inc.

Circle reply card No. 226

ter is the frrst in

tegrated water and backflow

prevention de vice approved by the CSA. Uniquely adapted to fit the needs of today's utilities, it eliminates extra planning and installation time. Backflow meters reduce your total costs by streamlining operations and increas ing protection against backflow liability. Schlumberger Circle reply card No. 176

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Product and Service Showcase Pre-packaged sewage lift station

This 6' X 6' above-ground lift station is shipped with pumps, motors, controls, valves and piping all pre-engineered, pre tested and ready for immediate hook-up. The tough fiberglass enclosure is corro sion, mildew and weather-resistant, and blends with its surroundings. The pan els are removable for easy maintenance. Inside, Gorman-Rupp T Series self-priming centrifugal sewage pumps give de pendable performance. Gorman-Rupp Company

Circle reply card No. 228

New polyethylene geomembrane manufacturer

A leader in the installation of geosynthetic containment systems for more than 15 years, Solmax International Inc. has invested close to $20 million in a

polyethylene geomembrane manufactur ing plant, in Varennes, Quebec. Solmax produces all types of polyethylene geo membrane roll goods, both smooth and textured materials composed of either high or low density polyethylene resins. Solmax International

Circle reply card No. 229

Noise control systems

Eckoustic ® Functional Panels offer out

standing sound absorption, and effective reduction of reverberation and back

ground noise. They are simple to install and can be spot located on walls and ceil ing, without the need to modify the area or reposition utilities. In areas where greater noise reduction/isolation is re quired, EFPs can be used in conjunction with Eckoustic Modular Panels. Eckel Industries

Circle reply card No. 230

New early warning system

On-site water quality testing

American Sigma's

□PIC I

Professional liability

950 and 960 Flow Monitors are a low

cost option for tracking sewer system flow and water qual ity. Suspended in a

offer automatic wavelength selection, up to 90 preprogramed calibrations and de tailed datalogging of water analysis test results. They are designed specifically for the rigors of field testing, with rug ged components and dustproof, chemi cal-resistant housings. The instruments meet IP67 standards, and are waterproof to a depth of one metre for 30 minutes. Hach Company

Security Insurance staff focus entirely on professional liability claims. These hands-on professionals know the crucial liability issues facing environmental firms, and they continue to lead the in dustry in using alternative dispute reso lution techniques to resolve claims. Standard policies feature: No pollution exclusion; coverage for asbestos expo sure; coverage for site remediation work; and worldwide coverage. Security Insurance Co. of Hartford

short term projects, or the 960 for long term projects, pro vide data for proactive sewer system management. Identifying system upsets at the headworks of a treatment plant is usually too late and too costly. The Sigma 950 and 960 can monitor flow, velocity, rainfall, and water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxy gen and conductivity.

Circle reply card No. 231

Circle reply card No. 232

Circle reply card No. 233

Corrosion protection systems

Denitrification system

Valve installation simplified

The new DR/800 Series Colorimeters

Denso Tape and Profiling Mastic provides longlasting corrosion protection for buried pipes, flanges, valves and fittings, that is easy to apply. No abrasive blasting is required, nor any special equip ment or training. The system is more cost-effective than paints, with no VOCs. It meets AWWA Standard C217-90 for cold-applied pet rolatum tapes. Denso North America

manhole, the 950 for

Can-Am Instruments

The Carrousel® denitIR™ System with Integral Anoxic Reactor oxidizes car bonaceous BOD, ammonia and organic nitrogen; reduces nitrite and nitrate ni trogen; restores alkalinity; recovers chemically bound oxygen; and reduces or eliminates alkali addition. The modi

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Municipal valve installation and mainte nance can be simplified with AWWA grooved and shouldered valves and Victaulic® couplings. Only 4 to 12 bolts are needed rather than the traditional 18

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Circle reply card No. 236 Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Consultants' Forum

A personal commentary on Consulting Engineering - 1947-1997

In the 50 years since World War I ,

we have witnessed a truly fantas tic change in the practice of con sulting engineering. In 1947, the traditional consulting firm was small, comprising a sole prac tice or a partnership of professionals, many of whom considered a drafting board their desk. No deliberate or overt

tion in the marketplace as firms grew in By James W. MacLaren, P.Eng.

build their proper share to government standards.

Whole new towns arose

through private development controlled by municipal regulation. This new client type posed a prob lem for consultants in determining

moves were made to solicit work but a

whether to continue to service the mu

professional and social relationship was maintained with those whose positions offered work potential to the consultants.

nicipal client or to serve the developers within that municipality. Some saw no

Business was done on a handshake with minimal reference to

proposals and agree ments. Dialogue between competing practices was minimal and only com mon membership in the founding societies and li censing authorities pro

conflict of interest and continued to serve both.

size and number to respond to the in creased opportunities. Many large firms began to appear such as Acres, Montreal Engineering, Sandwell, Simons and SNC, responding to the total service re quirement of the mega-buck projects cre ated by power and resource development. Their offices looked more like produc tion lines than professional practices. Suddenly in the "Sixties", a slow down in the economy created an unan ticipated shock to the partners and prin cipals of many consulting firms; they had to cut costs and re

duce staff in the face of a

diminished work oppor tunity. That slowdown also gave impetus to searching for work in the United States and over

professional jealousies

seas, especially in the de veloping world. This in troduced consulting firms

were leashed but not hid

to a host of new issues -

den.

personnel transfer, for eign receivables, new laws and working with

vided communication -

The necessity for sci entific and technical ex

pansion created by war

new cultures and lan

time, however, indicated

guages.

So in the recovery pe riod of the late '60s,firms prehensive approach to engineering. Practices became more aware and began to consider attack In 1995 James MacLaren (left) was awarded an honorary degree of conservative in their ing these broader oppor Doctor of Laws by the University of Guelph. The Hon. Lincoln Alexan management and used tunities not only with pro der, then Ontario's Governor General, made the presentation. contract personnel for fessionals but with engineering techni The burgeoning growth of the overload problems rather than expand "Fifties" also brought forward major re ing or overworking permanent staff. Re cians and project teams. Rapid economic expansion and the quirements for new industrial com tained earnings were increased and fis building of a national, regional and lo plexes, commercial buildings and shop cal and contractural safeguards were in ping plazas, water and wastewater treat cal infrastructure to support it, de troduced to reduce risk and buffer the manded a response from the consulting ment, power generation, expressways impacts of future economic downturns. fraternity which, because of a profes and rapid transit, communications and Unfortunately, the personal touch in sional aloofness as well as misguided downtown redevelopment. practice and business started to fade. ethics, frequently caused the response These opportunities could not be Work was undertaken by contract, not a to be slower than the market demanded. serviced by the staid practices of the past handshake, and the personal relation That slow response gave justification but required firms to not only expand in ship, as well as mutual respect between and impetus in both government and staff numbers but to diversify in techni client and consultant, was diminished. industry to the creation of in-house ca cal expertise. A traditional civil works Third person liability became a new and pability which became and still is today, firm, for example, required mechanical high cost item in the private practice of the consulting engineer's major competi and electrical support to undertake a engineering. tor and greatest headache. complete project. Many found it easier From a technical point of view, the This economic expansion created,on to build this capability in-house than to computer entered the scene by the end the other hand, a new client type - the buy it from consulting specialists. of the '60s and for many older engineers, private developer. Governments simply All of this required the engineer in provided a frightening spectre. Yet the refused to continue to totally finance the private practice to become an adminis ability to learn:"What can I do with the rapid expansion of infrastructure and trator, a financier and a salesman. The computer?" over: "What can a compu required land developers to finance and latter resulted from increased competi ter do for me?" quickly gave advantage the need for a more com

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

- an annual ES&Especial to the far-sighted practice, and today CAD/CAM and automated aerial map ping with facility management are inte gral parts of engineering practices. Through all of this, in-house govern ment and industrial competition contin ued to grow and the award of a lessen ing amount of work to the private sec tor was increasingly based on price and not competence. The Spiro Agnew scan dal of 73 created the opportunity for government and industry alike to move

to priced proposals. Awarding work at the lowest price became an established practice with many institutions. The profession's long time battle to have as signments awarded on quality and ex perience was dealt a cruel blow. More over, it disclosed a chronic weakness

among certain members of the consult ing fraternity- price cutting made us our own worst enemy. To combat this the Association of

Consulting Engineers of Canada,hke its counterpart in the USA,took the offen sive and spawned provincial counter parts to lobby and increase dialogue with the governments and industry on the role and importance of consulting engineer ing. Principals became more under standing of one another and better aware of the need for maintaining a united front. Firms moved to incorporate rather than continue as partnerships so as to limit liability, better deal with increas ing tax issues and more readily permit equity sharing among senior staff. The environmental issue was finally recognized and,as the pendulum swung in its favour,firms scurried to get on side and add environmental assessment, so

cial - economic planning, chemical, bio logical, hydrological, meteorological and other specialist capability to expand their expertise and attractiveness to ex isting and potential clients. None of these seemed to generate the profitabil ity of the simpler engineering assign ments of the past. Also, the increasing pressure for regional awarding of con tracts, forced firms to open branch of fices,thereby further reducing their prof itability. Continuing swings in the economy became a way of life and gave the principals of mostfirms-hiccoughs! Many Canadian firms found great difficulty with the ready acceptance by Canadian industry and government, of the US package dealers like Bechtel, Fluor and Parsons. Pressure was put on industry and government to at least re quire these firms to award some parts of their Canadian assignments to Cana

dian firms. SNC,Lavalin,Monenco and

others, expanded to provide a Canadian alternative but they could never estab lish the volume and profit levels of their American counterparts. And then in 1981, the bubble burst.

The energy boom collapsed, the econ omy turned down and the international market, especially the Middle Fast, shrunk. Ever since, Canadian consult

ing firms have been struggling to main tain the spine of their strengths; many have merged with stronger firms and some even went bankrupt. Few, if any, are achieving their pre-1980 profitabil ity. A few, like the AGRA group, have risen from the ashes and are flourishing. At least the decade of slow growth caused government and industry alike to cut back on in-house capability which will likely never be rebuilt to past lev els. But contract award is very much price oriented and most firms will never

again achieve the profitability and sta bility of the '50s,'60s and '70s. The debt-ridden governments of our land are giving increasing thought to public/private partnering. Once again the consulting engineering firms are being forced to decide, as they did with private developers in the '50s, whether they have the best future with the de veloper or the public agency. The experience of most of us in the field of consulting engineering over the past 50 years has been invigorating, re warding and exciting and, above all, challenging. It has now become a sig nificant and important part of the Cana dian economy - but its exceptional growth phase is over. To maintain posi tion, firms today must be exceptionally well managed and to grow, they must be imaginative as well as innovative while benefitting from sound and indepth financing. â&#x2013;

ES&E board member awarded Honorary Ph.D. those engineers who are willing to embrace and ac cept rapid change, who know where they are go ing, and who are extremely competent and knowledge able in their area of exper tise. Your success as an en ?r

gineer will also be tied di rectly to your communica tion skills. In an increas

ingly complex and de manding world, you must be flexible and be prepared to rethink and re-adjust your goals. "We are living in an era Peter Laughton with his wife Jane, at the Ryerson Poiyof dramatic changes that technic University Convocation. are taking place in all as Peter Laughton, Chairman of R.V. pects of society. The sweeping changes Anderson Associates, has been awarded in the marketplace are global. An au an Honorary Doctoral Degree of Engi thor once wrote,and ifI may paraphrase: neering by Ryerson Polytechnic Univer "When you see geese heading south for sity, Toronto. At the award ceremony the winter, flying along in a'V forma on June 19,1997,Peter gave the convo tion, it has been learned that as each bird cation address to the graduating class of flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the the Faculty of Engineering and Applied bird immediately following. By flying Science.

"The degree that you receive today is not the end of your period of study," he said. "It is really just the beginning of a period of intensive learning and selfimprovement that you will have to un dergo if you are to prosper into the com ing century with a reputation for being a good engineer. "The next millennium will belong to

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

in a'V formation, the whole flock adds

greater flying range than ifeach bird flew on its own."

"The translation was that people who share a common direction and sense of

community, can get where they are go ing quicker and easier because they are travelling on the thrust of one another." Peter has been a member of ES&E's Editorial Board since 1988.

Consultants' Forum

Life cycle costs The true cost of Infrastructure

Theold axiom "penny wise and

pound foolish" is still true to day. Selection of professional

services for infrastructure de

velopment on the basis of lowest price is a excellent example. O.J. Simpson didn't trust his fate to a low-cost legal team; would you allow your family doc tor to perform brain surgery? Shouldn't a community have essential infrastruc ture engineered by experts in that par

By Paul da Silva, P.Eng. President, CH2M Gore & Storrie Ltd.

option may result in a politician's re election....once, but ultimately the tax payers will pay a higher long-term life cycle cost. How can the risks be effectively man aged? Politicians must understand how the community spends its infrastructure dollars:

It should not be necessary for con taminated drinking water, sewage

a)Ongoing operation, maintenance,and replacement of time-worn equipment (estimated at 75% of total life cycle

flooded basements, environmental de

costs).

terioration due to poor waste treatment, or high accident ratio transportation cor

(23.5%).

ticular field?

ridors to occur before communities rec

ognize the value of expert engineering and commit to pay for appropriately skilled, professional services. In today's world, risk management is a must. Selection of the low-cost

b) Capital costs for construction c) Engineering to plan and design the facility (1.5%). Until recently, only the latter two

components were given primary consid eration in Canada; now, more commu

nities are looking at the largest compo-

Dirty water is more dangerous than bayonets

nent. Once infrastructure is in place, the die is already cast; therefore, optimiza tion of life cycle costs must occur at the planning and design engineering phase. As expert engineering is the most im

portant factor in life cycle costs, engi neering selection based on price is in deed penny wise and pound foolish. Operation and maintenance costs can be optimized more effectively, not by competitive bidding, but by qualitybased selection (QBS) at the planning and engineering phase. While many municipahties recognize the impact of QBS on life cycle costs, others still use pricebased selection, not realizing the ben efits of professional expertise. Consult ants must emphasize the relevance of their background and experience in their submissions to potential clients. While some municipalities do not have the resources to properly evaluate comparative expertise, several know ledgeable, retired engineers across Canada offer advisory services that are worth their weight in gold. Their ad vice on team selection could signifi cantly improve the end result. The most relevant experience does not necessar ily mean the lowest engineering costs or the lowest capital works costs, but ultimately will result in the lowest life cycle cost- a suitable legacy for future generations. Toronto's Prince Edward Viaduct

(Bloor Street), spanning the Don River Valley, is an excellent example of opti mization of future system development costs. Originally designed and built for surface transportation,the viaduct incor porated features to accommodate a sub way under the roadway. Decades later, when the Bloor Street subway was con structed, this innovative design saved tens of millions of dollars. While de

Impure drinking water has slain more soldiers than weapons of war. Lt. Colonel Nasmith - later one of the founders of what is now CH2M Gore & Storrie Ltd.-

devised methods of purifying water on the battlefields. He held an M.A., Ph.D., D.P.M., and D.Sc., all from the University of Toronto. Dr. Nasmith also played a major role in understanding that the first use of gas warfare by the enemy at Ypres in April 1915, was a combination of chlorine and bromine. His actions in the field and technical and practical discussions are re corded in the July 16, 1919 edition of the Medical Record. He was officer commanding No.5 Mobile Laboratory in France, which had full supervision of all water purification for the First Canadian Army and latterly, the Second British Army in the field. Tom Davey 64

signing facilities for short-term results is relatively straightforward, long-term planning and site development requires a forward-thinking approach and a broad background of relevant experience. Municipalities, including political decision-makers, must re-evaluate pre sent selection practices and recognize that the 75% operation and maintenance component of the life cycle costs in re ality is determined by how effectively the 1.5% is spent for engineering plan ning and design. â&#x2013;

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

PROCTOR & REDFERN LIMITED PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES

ANNOUNCEMENT Proctor & Redfern is pleased to announce two important new additions to our Water and Wastewater team.

Joining us as Manager of the Water and Wastewater Groups is David Ohashi. David brings 15 years of treatment plant and infrastructure design and construction experience to Proctor &c Redfern. He has an established reputation throughout Ontario for the implementation of innovative approaches and new technologies to optimize, upgrade and expand traditional systems in both the public and private

David Ohashi

sectors.

Making a welcome return to Proctor & Redfern is Volker Masemann. Volker is one of Canada's most respected wastewater engineers. His expertise is widely recognized and we are pleased that it is once again available to our clients. David and Volker join one of the strongest and most knowledgeable teams in wastewater treatment in Canada today. Volker Masemann

45 Green Belt Drive, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3C3K3 Tel:(416)445-3600 Fax:(416)445-5276 e-mail: cspark@pandr.com

For more information, circie reply card No. 161 (See page 17)

Golder Associates Is helping its clients maintain the

WE BELIEVE BOTH INDUSTRY AND NATURE SHOULD WIN! , Golder Associates Geotechnical, Environmental & Mining Solutions

1 800 414-8314

balance between

industrial development and the environment. With innovative services like environmental risk

assessment,remote sensing and . GIS modelling, plus traditional services,such as surface and

groundwater management, strategic planning and biological assessments,site assessment and remediation,and environmental

impact analysis, Golder Associates has the expertise that clients have trusted for over 35 years. With the integrated team of environmental and geotechnical specialists behind our name,our professionals can meet all of your

Offices throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia.

environmental needs.

For more information, circle reply card No. 154(See page 17)

Consultants' Forum

The changing environmental consulting engineering profession

WhenI began my career25

years ago as a fresh young engineering grad uate entering the environ mental consulting business, 1 had no idea what engineering consultants did. In the intervening 25 years, I have not found anything more challenging to do; yet, with the changes that are occurring in our profession, the role of the engineering consultant is less clear than it once was.

Our industry, like all others, is un dergoing dramatic change as we enter the next millennium.

Specialist Designations for Professionals working in the Environmental Field

The designation "Professional Engi neer" has traditionally been sufficient qualification to undertake environmen tal work on behalf of public and private sector clients. Now specific designa tions such as QEP (Qualified Environ mental Professional) and CEA (Certi fied Environmental Auditor), are being conferred by organizations with no le gal or regulatory function. Clients are requesting these designations from their consultants to allay fears of retaining unqualified individuals or firms to do

By Stephen G. Nutt, M.Eng., P.Eng. Partner, XCG Consultants Ltd.

Multi-Firm Teaming Teaming has always been a part of our industry. Teaming normally oc curred on large projects where one or ganization was perceived to lack the re sources needed to deliver the project or on projects where specialist skills were needed to augment the skills of the prime consultant. Teaming of organizations with similar skill sets, either of whom

have the capability to deliver the project, is becoming more common as competi tion for every project, large or small, intensifies. The next logical step is more mergers and acquisitions among tradi tional competitors. Product/Process Approval Environmental products and serv ices, like environmental professionals, are now being approved by "independ ent agencies". At one time, this was the role of the consulting engineer, who

Optimization, capacity evaluation, process modelling. Implementation of best practices and staff training have become normal practice rather than the exception.

environmental work. It is unclear whe

ther this change has been in response to or in anticipation of a problem, but the suggestion that these new designations carry more weight than 'P. Eng.' should be a concern to our profession. The Design-Build Model The traditional client/consulting en gineer/contractor relationship served the municipal sector well until the 1990s. Now, municipal clients are enamoured by the Design-Build model where the project is placed in the hands of a con tractor. The client's interests are served

by a Project Manager, either internal to or external to his organization. The per ception is that the Design-Build ap proach will deliver the project more quickly and at lower cost. In the first municipal infrastructure Design-Build projects delivered in Ontario, an uneasy relationship between the client, the con tractor and the consultant has been evi

dent. Only time will tell whether the Design-Build approach will result in cost-effective delivery of innovative solutions or inferior projects with shortterm cost savings. 66

other public sector agencies. The pub lic sector emphasizes that "it is not com peting," merely providing specialized services not available from the private sector. Specialized consultants, labora tories and other private sector Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises who have traditionally provided these services now find themselves competing with the public sector for this market. More Players in a Shrinking Market Environmental firms that have tradi

tionally served Western Canada are moving east and vice versa. American and European firms are beginning to explore the Canadian market as they seek to expand their geographical base. All firms are offering a broader range ofservices as they seek to diversify tech nically. Re-Fmphasis on Cost as a Consultant Selection Criteria

Throughout the 1980s, consulting engineers sought to convince clients, particularly those in the public sector, that engineering services should not be procured on the same basis as office supplies. Rather, the selection should be based on ability, experience and un derstanding of the assignment. Some progressive municipalities eliminated cost as a consultant selection criterion.

These municipalities are now bowing to political pressure and reinstating cost as a selection criterion. Ground won in the

1980s has been lost in the fiscally re strained 1990s.

evaluated options and recommended the most cost-effective solution to the cli

ent. Will this "approval" lead the user to believe that a process technology can be selected without technical input or ad vice? Will solutions delivered by con sulting engineers, experienced in evalu ating technical options, be limited to a list of technologies approved by pseudogovernment agencies? Where does the ultimate responsibility (and liability) lie? Public Sector Involvement

Public sector competition with the private sector is not new, but is increas ing. As the availability of program dol lars from government decreases, gov ernment departments and pseudo-gov ernment agencies are pursuing other sources of income, including contract ing directly with the private sector or to

Maximize Use of Existing Infrastructure The fiscal constraints of the 1990s

have led to wider acceptance of the need to conserve our limited financial resour

ces by ensuring that the existing infra structure is fully utilized. Optimization, capacity evaluation, process modelling, implementation of best practices and staff training have become normal prac tice rather than the exception. The Future of our Industry Do these changes spell the death knell for the consulting engineering firm in the environmental industry? Hardly! Our industry will adapt to the changes with more efficient methods of project delivery and an increased emphasis on the global market. The challenge will be to maintain the emphasis on "value" that has been our hallmark. â&#x2013;

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

CH2M Gore & Storrie Limited

Environmental engineers, planners and scientists

Industrial Services

Solid Waste Management Residuals Management Energy Management Process Control

Water Supply & Distribution Wastewater Collection, Treatment & Disposal Tunnels and Underground Works Systems Analysis Modeling Water Resources Engineering

Toronto 255 Consumers Road

Waterloo 180 King Street South, Suite 600

North York, Ontario M2J 5B6 tel: (416) 499-9000 fax: (416) 499-4687 direct dial: (416) 499-0090 + ext.

Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P8 tel: (519)579-3500 fax:(519) 573-8986 direct dial: (519) 579-350U ext.

Air Management Environmental Planning Environmental Site Characterization/Remediation

Environmental Laboratory

Calgary 555 - 4th Avenue SW, Suite 1500

Calgary, Alberta T2P 3E7 tel: (403) 237-9300 fax: (403) 237-7715 direct dial: (403) 237-5691 + ext.

Barrie • London • Ottawa • Thorold • Vancouver

For more information, circle reply card No. 155(See page 17)

Announcement Thorburn Penny Ltd. is pleased to announce the appointment of three Professional Engineers to join their staff. These individuals will enhance Thorburn Penny's services in a number of relevant areas.

Hardat A. Barran, M.B.A., P.Eng. Project Director, has over 20 years ex perience in environmental engineer ing. He has been involved in Business Administration including strategy and policy development, organizational behaviour, finance and marketing. With his extensive training in the use of modern computer programming languages as well as the development and use of software programs, we will strengthen Thorburn Penny's ability to provide even more cost-effective pro jects in the future.

Bill De Angelis,M.B.A.,P.Eng. has re cently joined Thorburn Penny as Project Director. He has been involved in the field of municipal engineering in the public and private sectors for over 20 years. Previously, with Metro Toronto, he was responsible for the planning and development of the Water Pollution Control Division's

Capital Works Program and the opera tion of Metro's Main Treatment Plant.

He brings to Thorburn Penny exten sive experience in all elements of wastewater treatment and operations.

Chris Povell,P.Eng., is a Project Engi neer with over 30 years of engineering related experience in both the public and private sectors. His consulting ex perience includes project management, design and contract administration for a wide variety of municipal infrastruc ture, land development and environ mental engineering. Prior to joining Thorburn Penny, Chris was Manager of Engineering Field Services for the City of Burlington. THORBURN PENNY

Consulting Engineers

For more information, circie reply card No. 156(See page 17)

Consultants' Forum

Water supply and sewerage plans being developed for the Galapagos Islands

TheGalapagos Archipelago has since Charles Darwin devel

oped the founding principles of his Evo lutionary Theory in the 1800s. Today the islands are an important area for eco-

nowned Charles Darwin Research Insti

logical conservation and continue to be the subject of international scientific

tute. The city ofPuerto Ayora,the main populated centre of the archipelago, is

research.

contained within the boundaries of the

The Island of Santa Cruz is the focus

Air

;

Blending

solar Tanks

and is also the home of the world re

Proctor & Redfern International Ltd.

Solar Aquatics™ System Typical Process Flow Diagram

Equalization &

of a rapidly growing tourism industry,

By Ricardo Toledo,

been known for its unique eco system and biodiversity ever

j Solar Pond

Clarifier

..i (optional)

Sand

Marsh

Fi't®''

Galapagos National Park. The rapid demographic growth has created an extraordinary pressure on the island's basic water supply and sanita tion services. This represents a threat to human health and to the environmen

tal integrity of the area as a result of both surface and subsurface contamination. Proctor & Redfem International Lim Bar Screen

ited (PRIL) was retained by the Ecua dorian Government to identify and de

Biosoiids Return

sign the preferred water supply and dis

Biosotids Waste

UV Disinfection

mi'-:--

Effluent Discharge

Biosoiids to

Riragmiles Reed Bed (optional)

PROCTOR & REDFERN INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

tribution, as well as sewage conveyance, treatment and disposal systems for the city of Puerto Ayora on the Island of Santa Cruz. The preferred water sup ply and sewerage treatment systems must be compatible with the surround

ings, while preserving and enhancing Canadian Environmental

Auditing Association F» /V F» A.C3 O IM ENGINEERING

CONSULTING

Stanley

ENGINEERS

Association canadicnnc dc verification cnvironncmcntalc

Consulting

Announcement Paragon Engineering Limited is pleased to announce that it has joined North American-based engineering and related professional services enterprise Stanley Technology Group Inc. Paragon has begun operat ing as Stanley Consulting Group Ltd., maintaining present office locations, with no interruption in com pany operations or client services. In joining Stanley, Paragon extends its range of environmental services and has access to expertise gained through awardwinning, innovative projects completed by Stanley over the last 43 years, across North America and worldwide.

Please address queries to: Guy Le Patourel, P.Eng. Head Environmental

Stanley Consulting Group Ltd. 871 Victoria Street North

Kitchener, Ontario N2B 3S4

Telephone:(519)579-4410 68

Application Deadlines for 1998 The deadlines for the submission of applications

in 1998 for the two professional designations in environmental auditing offered by the Canadian Environmental Auditing Association are: Certified Environmental Auditor - CEA • January 16, 1998 •June 12, 1998

Certified Environmental - Sustainable Eorest Management System Auditor - CEA (SFM) •April 24, 1998 • September 25, 1998

To receive certification application forms or for further information about the certification program and/or association membership,please contact the CEAA at(905)567-4705, fax:(905)567-7191. For more information, circle reply card No. 157 (See page 17)

Consultants' Forum ecological and sociological conditions. The project is divided into four phases. Phase 1 provided for a diagnos tic report which identified the conditions of the existing systems available on the island. Phase 2 included the prepara tion of an Environmental Study Report (ESR). The ESR was utilized as the decision-making methodology to iden tify the optimum solutions for wastewater treatment and disposal. The Fea sibility Study, together with the En vironmental Impact report have been submitted to the client for review and

approvals. Phases 3 and 4 will be dedi cated to final design and tender docu ments for construction.

The analysis of the proposed new drinking water distribution system in volved modeling of both system pres sures and quality using EPANET. Groundwater investigation was aimed at replacing existing water sources, which have high chloride con tent and poor bacteriological quality. The drilling of an exploratory well was challenging from both technical and lo gistics perspectives due to the remote

Key contract awarded to complete $1 million infrastructure master plan for Lethbridge The Stanley Consulting Group Ltd., has been awarded a key contract to complete a $1 million Underground Infrastructure Master Plan for the City of Lethbridge, Alberta. The City has also committed to enter into a long-term partnership al liance with Stanley, commencing with this initial project. The Master Plan will define a long-term strategy for water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer under ground systems. "We are pleased to be working with the City of Lethbridge on this signifi cant project- one that clearly addresses the pent-up need for renewed infrastruc ture management throughout North America, as our aging systems require rehabilitation or, in some cases, outright replacement," said Ron Triffo, Stanley Technology Group President and Chief Executive Officer.

The study project has been identified as a critical tool in developing strategic improvement programs for the under ground utilities. "Infrastructure Serv

ices recognizes that the development of such a Master Plan is an extremely am bitious undertaking," said Doug Hawkins,a City municipal engineer and representative on the combined Stanley/ City project management team. In conducting project activities, Stanley will utilize leading-edge meth odologies to analyze and assess complex infrastructure-related data. Activities

related to the study will include data collection, infrastructure condition

analysis, assessment of planning and growth issues, analysis tool develop ment,and development of improvement alternatives. To facilitate the integrated partnership approach, Stanley and City employees will form a number of taskfocused functional groups. The initial project is scheduled to be completed in 24 months, and will in clude the development of a model for the City's 20-year growth projections and future land use scenarios.

ness of the site and the volcanic forma tion of the island.

Cormix Model. Further oceanographic

The identification and development of alternative wastewater disposal solu tions included a marine survey and un derwater inventory of habitat and biota in the adjacent Academy Bay to deter mine the candidate outfall locations.

Modeling of effluent plumes was conducted for various different multi-

port diffuser designs using the EPA's

studies to measure currents, water strati

fication and plume dispersion will be un dertaken to confirm modeling predic tions.

The Solar Aquatics System, a lowcost,low energy biological and ecologi cal treatment system,is the sewage treat ment option being considered for this environmentally sensitive area. â&#x2013;

Next Issue.,. ES&E's 1998 Directory and Buyers'Guide Ear more information, contact ES&E at

(905) 727-4666

From Piv

Vcno7UiMa ro

ibit'

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

For more information, circie reply card No. 158 (See page 17)

Paint Recycling

By Neville McKlttrick^

Recycling household paint in PEi

Demandfor household paintin

Prince Edward Island peaks in the spring and summer and when demand slackens in the

fall, Northumberland Paints of Char-

lottetown, PEI's only paint manufac turer, is forced to reduce production and lay off some of its staff. The company decided to test the technical and eco

nomic feasibility of recycling household paints in the Province each October to prolong the employment of its staff as well as helping the environment. A paint recovery day (October 26, 1996), was well advertised in all the pro vincial media. There were four drop off locations across the Province in Char-

lottetown, Summerside, Stratford and

Montague. The public was asked to drop off any unused household paint they wanted to get rid of. A total of 7,000 partially used quart, gallon and five gallon cans of paint from 71 manufacturers were dropped off that day at the four sites. The paint varied in age from about twenty years old to al most brand new and the cans varied from

almost empty to unopened and full. The first step in the recycling proc ess was to transport the cans to North umberland Paints manufacturing plant. There the cans of paint were separated into oil and latex and then by colour grouping. This led to 16 different col oured paint and stain groupings. Then each of the 7,000 cans were opened and examined by the paint chemists for any potentially foreign or hazardous prod ucts in the cans. The contents of 35%

of the cans were unusable, mainly be cause the paint had gelled or dried out and 3% of the cans contained potentially hazardous products such as pesticides, preservatives or antifouling chemicals. The Province disposed of these cans as part of their commitment to the project. The remaining cans were emptied and cleaned with Teflon scrapers which left less than 3% of the original paint in the can. This figure allows for the cans to be recycled. If there is another paint recovery day, the lids will be left off the cans so that the paint will dry and the cans can be easily recycled. The paint in each can in the colour grouping was poured into 100 gallon mixing tanks, appropriate chemicals were added to bring it up to Northum*Northumberland Paints 70

Picture shows the aesthetic resuit of paint recycling. berland Paints standards for quality and causes and charities and 385 gallons re the finished paint product was poured main to be sold. This research project showed that the into 5 gallon drams for sale. Check sam ples of all the batches before and after process is technically feasible and at this price the venture is a break-even propo additions were kept to monitor the prod uct for possible interaction causing sition which allows the company to keep physical or chemical changes, i.e. gela its staff employed for an additional tion, pH drift. month or two and make excellent use of After one year, some latex check a product which would normally be samples before additions are showing dumped or be an expensive disposal problem for the Province. pH drift. Latex check samples after ad The drawbacks to repeating the pro ditions are stable. A test sample from each batch of finished product was sent ject are Health Canada's proposed new to the University College of Cape Breton regulations which should be law late this to be tested for heavy metals (lead and year or early 1998. No traces of mer mercury), as many of the paint cans ap cury or greater than 0.06% lead are peared to contain some very old paint. allowed in the recycled paint product The tests showed that the level of heavy without warning labels on the cans;these warning labels would have an adverse metals in each batch was within exist ing Canadian standards. effect on acceptance of recycled paint. The yield from the 7,000 cans was It is highly likely that there will be 1,255 gallons of good quality paint. The lead or mercury in any recycled paint. resulting sixteen colours were seven However, if the recycling of household white latexes,two dark latexes,two mid- paint continues for a few more years,then tone latexes,two off-white oils, one mid- most, if not all, of the older paint will have been dumped, disposed of or recy tone oil and two dark oil stains. The most popular recycled products were the cled and the proposed new regulations dark stains, much of which were bought could be met. If the regulations were to by Opportunities East Development Inc. be effective in the year 2000, it is likely for the ecotourism Rails to Trails furni that they could be met as Canadian paint ture in Eastern PEL companies have voluntarily stopped us The paint has been well accepted in ing lead and mercui'y in their household the marketplace with little advertising. paint products since the early 1980s. Each time there is a story in the media, The Canadian Paint and Coatings sales increase for a short period and then Association is exploring the rationale for the proposed changes in the regulations fall back to regular levels. The retail price is $10 per gallon and with Health Canada officials. For more Information, to date 570 gallons have been sold, 300 circle reply card No. 159 gallons have been donated to worthy Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

The World Summit for the WASTE

DISPOSAL

INDUSTRY

Cologne, Germany May 12-16, 1998

Entsorga 1998 the only trade fair with the complete range of products and services sewage

sewer systems

measuring and regulation technology waste disposal services recycling machines and plants vehicles

attachments containers

ENTSORGA

international Trade Fair for

Recycling and Waste Disposal ENTSORGA *98

REPLY COUPON O Please send us visitor information of ENTSORGA '98

O Please send us exhibitor information of ENTSORGA

Company

Name

Address

Postal Code

Edel Wichman, Cologne international Trade Shows. A80 University Ave.

Suite UIO. Toronto. Ontario MSG 1V2. Tel. A16-598-3343. Telefax 416-59B-10AO

ivc^^velse^kes

@ Lufthansa

jr more information, circie reply card No. 160(See page 17)

Recycling and Composting

Waste management strategy includes user pay by 2001

Peel Regional Council has an

nounced a 20-year Long-Term Waste Management Strategy (LTWMS). LTWMS is a macro level approach to the major waste issues and capital decisions to be taken by Peel Region in Ontario, over the next 20 years. The strategy establishes future waste diversion and reduction targets and out lines a plan to achieve the targets, greatly reducing the amount of waste requiring disposal. Components of the LTWMS include: a user pay system to be phasedin beginning in 2001; community recy cling centres; expansion of organics col lection throughout Peel; a second recy cling container to be supplied to all households and free backyard composters for residents.

"The Long-Term Waste Management Strategy provides a blue print for Re gional Council to achieve the Region's objectives for waste management and waste diversion, now and in the future,"

states Regional Chair Emil Kolb. "The strategy provides an environmentally re sponsible and cost-effective system for managing municipal and solid waste, including household hazardous waste, generated within Peel," says Kolb. To ensure an integrated waste man agement program,the strategy team met 12 environmental,customer service and

financial objectives. Four public meet ings were held from May to September 1997 to receive public input into the strategy.

"By the year 2016, Peel will be di verting 70 percent of its waste, reducing its dependency on export," says Mitch Zamojc,Commissioner ofPublic Works. "More importantly we will be responsi bly managing 93 percent of the total waste produced in Peel," he says. Peel became the first Canadian mu

nicipality to employ the Herhof com-

Mitch Zamojc(above), is working on recyciing, composting and incinerating meth ods to divert 93 percent of waste from iocai iandfiii sites.

posting system that was developed in Germany, where it is in widespread use. It is designed to turn waste into safe, quality garden compost. That was two

years ago, when Peel began a $2.5 mil lion pilot project, involving 8,000 Caledon households. It was so success

ful that the council approved a $3.5 mil lion expansion of the program aimed at developing an industrial fuel called

have air vents to accelerate decomposi tion without creating odours. Liquids drain through gratings and evaporate. Every two weeks, residents wheel the bins to curbside for pickup. The gar bage is then transported to the compost ing building, shredded and placed in a Herhof biocell, about the size of a two-

car garage. There are four biocells, each with a capacity of about 40 tonnes. As bacteria thrive inside the biocells,

Stabilate.

Mitch Zamojc would like the pro gram expanded throughout the region because "generating a useful byproduct from garbage is so much better than burying it," he stresses. Landfill costs $70 a tonne, composting $46. Caledon households were given a special, wheeled container for dumping kitchen waste, including meat and dairy products, as well as yard waste. Con

energy is needed. The process creates its own heat, breaking down the waste over 7 to 10 days, depending on the time of year. It is then taken to an outdoor curing pile and the finished compost is ready for use in about 45 days. Most of it is spread on municipal parks. The process to develop Stabilate, which is not yet under way, will involve

tainers can handle cardboard, thin

four additional biocells and will cost

branches and filled vacuum bags. They do not handle animal waste, diapers or feminine hygiene products. The bins

$3.5 million. Bags of mixed garbage will be collected for this experiment. Metal and other unusable materials will

be taken from the garbage, which will ..

Barnes

■■■"■

Recycling of by-products... • • • •

foundry sand foundry slags dust collector fines spent abrasives

• • • •

fly ash minerals refractory alumina

• • • •

spent lime gypsum mill scale filter cake

and

MOEE

Certificate of

Approval

Excess materials... • selected contaminated soils

• brick, slag, sand • solid waste treatment • site remediation

407 Parkside Drive, Waterdown, Ontario, LOR 2H0

Tel: (905) 689-6661 • Fax: (905) 689-0485 • Que: (514) 631-3578 email: lnfo@barnesenvlronmentai.com 72

For more information, circle reply card No. 163 (See page 17)

be turned into fuel similar to brown coal.

This material can be used to gener ate electricity or to fire cement kilns. Ontario Hydro will be monitoring tbe project while doing test burns of Stabilate, to determine its potential. Public consultation will be sought for many of the component choices and im plementation issues, surrounding initia tives such as user pay. ■

Environmentai Science & Engineering, November 1997

Protecting the ozone layer

Governments strengthen controls on methyl bromide and illegal CFC trade

Some 110 governments at end

Deplete the Ozone Layer agreed Sep tember 17 to tighten restrictions on sev

by 2003. Developing countries, previ ously committed only to a freeze by 2002, have agreed to a 20% reduction by 2005 and a phase out by 2015. They will use a four-year average of 1995-98 as the base year for calculating the phase

eral destructive chemicals.

out; the interim reduction schedule will

The Meeting agreed on a phase out schedule for methyl bromide,a fumigant that was the most important ozone-de pleting substance whose phase out by developing countries had not yet been established. It also set up a licensing system to help governments track inter

be reviewed in 2003.

ing the ninth Meeting of the Parties(MOP)to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that

national trade in CFCs and other con

trolled substances and discourage ille gal sales. "We have succeeded in maintaining the Montreal Protocol's momentum by adding important new protections for the ozone layer", said the Meeting's Presi

In addition to the (US) $10 million agreed to last year for funding demon stration projects testing the feasibility of methyl bromide alternatives, the Multi lateral Fund will make $25 million per year available in both 1998 and 1999 for activities to phase out methyl bromide in developing countries. Starting one year after the agreement enters into force. Parties will ban trade in methyl bromide with non-Parties.

The new licensing system for con trolling trade will be based on licenses

dent, Dr. Won-Hwa Park of Korea. "We

issued by Parties for each import and

need to follow up now with strong en

export and on regular information ex change between Parties. This will en able customs and police officials to track

forcement of these new commitments."

Under the methyl bromide agree ment, the phase out by developed coun tries, previously set at 2010, has been moved up to 2005 with exemptions for

trade in CFCs and to detect unlicensed

trade. The system will become effec tive at the start of 2000.

Another decision adopted by the Meeting requests developed countries to consider banning the sale of their stock piles of virgin CFCs anywhere in the world, except for meeting the "basic domestic needs" of developing countries or for exempted "essential uses". This is important for preventing these stocks from entering the black market. Proposals by the European Commu nity and Switzerland to accelerate the phase out of the consumption of HCFCs and to introduce production control were not accepted. These countries made a declaration urging that the issue be re vised at a future meeting. The Meeting of the Parties took place from 15-17 September and was attended by ministers and some 800 participants in total. It marked the tenth anniversary of the Montreal Protocol, which was signed on 16 September, 1987. ■

Our client is a pubiicly traded total solution environmental service leader focused on the removal, processing, conversion, transportation, storage, marketing and distribution ofsulphur byproducts to end users in Canada and the U.S.

"critical uses" and interim reductions of

25% by 1999, 50% by 2001, and 70%

Planning Manager

• to manage the product co-ordination and movement from manufacturing plant to end use customer for all products. • to develop and implement distribution procedures to optimize cost and service and maximize margins in manufacturing and distribution functions. • to develop procedures to establish the company as the lowest cost manufacturer and distributor of acid and liquid S02. Experience in one or more of rail, truck distribution, logistics, material handling or production scheduling is required. Additional training in logistics and production

Water Supply and Sanitation Specialists Associates in Rural Development, Inc., an international firm providing technical services in development assistance, is looking for Water Supply and Sanitation sector specialists in areas relating to: water and sanitation systems engineer ing; community participation; health and hygiene education; water quality analy sis and laboratory systems; epidemiol ogy; health and water-borne disease sta tistics; and training program design. In ternational experience required; previ ous experience in Asia preferred. Knowl edge of Russian and/or Turkish or a na tive Central Asian language desired. Please send full curriculum vitae(CV)

supply chain management

planning would be desirable.

Business Development Manager

• to participate in the development of the refinery services BOOM model and sell

the projects to the refining industry. • to lead the development of the pulp mill byproducts removal model and

to: DR/JPH, ARD, Inc., P.O. Box 1397,

Burlington, VT 05402;fax to DR/JPH at 802-658-4247; or e-mail to dread@ard inc.com.

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

execute sales

Marketing, business development or sales experience in industrial gases, environment services, refining petrochemical or merchant banking is required.

We are looking for strategic decision makers for these positions who are team leaders with 5-10 years related work experience. An MBA and undergraduate degree in Engineering or Sciences is required. Our candidates must be high achievers who are promotable to more senior positions. If you are on the way to somewhere in a hurry, forward your resume to: Ron Rubin, Senior Partner, Geddes + Rubin Management inc., Waterpark Place, 10 Bay St., Suite 1500, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 2R8. Fax:(416) 365-7669 e-mail rr@grsearch.com

Protecting Groundwater

Modelling evaluates chemicallandfillimpact

The Ontario Ministry of Envi

ronment & Energy granted its Environmental Assessment

recognized. In response, off-site im pacts are addressed through environ mental compliance monitoring and miti gation measures, that are designed to control any contaminant movement from the landfill. Monitoring under

(EA) Act and final operating certificate approvals in May and Sep tember 1997, respectively, for the con tinuation of landfill operations at taken to date indicates that the Lambton Laidlaw's Lambton Facility in the Town Facility has had no measurable impact ship of Moore, near Samia in Southem on off-site groundwater quality. Ontario. After more than three years of Approach EA study and consultation, Laidlaw En Two hydrostratigraphic units have vironmental Services began the con been identified at the site, which are struction and operation of a 1.9-million characterized by higher hydraulic activ cubic metre (2.5-million cubic yard)ca ity (i.e., ability to convey water). These pacity cell, known as Cell 18, Figure 1 within its existing Lambton Facility site. A key component of the Site project's EA report was the wa ter resource impacts analysis. In ACCESS ROAD its entirety, the detailed analysis addressed surface and groundwater quality and quantity im pacts,following the interdiscipli nary framework established through provincial EA legislation and policy. Historical Perspective (CLOSED) The Lambton Facility prop erty has been in active use in the treatment and disposal of chemi cal waste since the early 1960s. Over the past 30-1- years, numer ous geology and hydrogeology

Lambton Facility

been effectively simulated by an analyti cal computer model. The analytical model used for this purpose was POLLUTE which is widely used in Ontario to simulate one-dimen

sional chemical transport through fine grained soil and synthetic barrier mate rials. This computer model accommo dates advection, dispersion, diffusion, absorption and degradation. As well, it can be used to predict the theoretical chemical flux through a barrier layer. Model output, as used for this project, was expressed as a chemical flux in mass

TELFER

LEACHATE

SERVICE ROAOS

PRE-1986 LANDFIU.AREA

studies of the site have been con

ducted, providing a sound basis for predicting future impacts on local groundwater resources from Figure 1: Lambton Facility iocation and site, inciuding Ceii 18, which was recentiy ap the continued landfill operations. proved by the Ontario Ministry of Environment & Energy. The continuation of landfill activities are the near surface, weathered portion per unit area for a specified time period. Modelling was initially conducted to at the Lambton Facility involves the of the till, referred to as the Active excavation of a new landfill cell (Cell Aquitard and a zone at the overburden/ predict future water quality impacts 18), and the construction of ancillary bedrock contact, that is referred to as the from the existing and closed landfill Interface Aquifer. The movement of cells at the site, to establish a base line facilities. The landfill will receive waste over a 15- to 20- year period. The waste groundwater and any chemicals from the condition for subsequent comparison will be placed in the 24.4-metre(80 foot) site would occur preferentially through with the predicted, future impacts from deep landfill cell and entombed below these units. As such, they became the Cell 18. The conceptual model of the main focus of the impact analysis. new Cell 18 is depicted in Figure 3. a thick (>5-metre or 16.4-foot) com Thick clay till which underlies the pacted cap of clay till. The Lambton To adapt the POLLUTE model code Facility site with Cell 18 is shown in site provides a high degree of natural to site conditions, it was initially neces Figure 1. Operations are depicted in containment of the chemical waste sary to develop a time frame for the Figure 2. placed in the landfill. Movement of the impact prediction. In the absence of The landfilling operation, which will chemical constituents of the waste from provincial guidelines on an appropriate involve the excavation of a large vol the cell, through the cap and native clay time frame for undertaking a future im ume of clay, the placement of waste and till in which the landfill is constructed, pact projection, a period of 10,000 years was selected, based on US Environmen alteration of the land surface, will have is primarily by diffusion. This chemi an impact on the quality of the ground- cal transport process is well understood tal Protection Agency guidance. Magnitude of Effect water below the Lambton Facility prop and the rate of movement and resulting Chemicals present in the existing and erty. The potential for off-site impacts chemical flux through the fine textured on the local groundwater resource is also materials (i.e., clay till) at the site have new landfill cells will diffuse outward 74

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Protecting Groundwater aquifer would represent impair ment of water quality. To achieve compliance with provincial policy, the facility will install purge wells in the Interface Aquifer, as a mitigation measure. If required, the purge wells will be actively pumped, creating in

Figure 2

Lambton Facility Cell 18

Operation

ward hydraulic gradients below the property, thereby preventing chemicals from moving beyond the property boundary. Mitigation measures will be activated when a statistically sig nificant change in the chemistry in the Interface Aquifer below the property over natural background concentrations

detected

through routine monitoring. For chloride, the most mobile of the

three parameters, concentration over natural background is likely to be detected in 500 to 1,000

Figure 2: The operation of Cell 18 Is a modified form of the continuous trench entombment landfllling method, developed In 1985. Excavation of the cell Is conducted at the leading years' time. Less mobile con taminants would not be detected edge, followed by zones of waste placement, encapsulation and restoration. for several thousand years. from the landfill, through the cap and guidance for drinking water standards Conclusion into the surrounding native clay till. As and ambient water quality. The new landfill cell at the Lambton Based on this comparison, three Facility is predicted to change the qual a result of this chemical transport, the quality of the groundwater below the site chemical parameters, chloride, fluoride ity of the groundwater below the site. will become impacted. Perimeter and boron, were predicted to reach the The effect is expected to occur several screening berms, constructed between Interface Aquifer at concentrations hundreds of years after closure of Cell the landfill and the property boundary which would exceed the criteria. These 18. Mitigation measures have been de from the soil excavated to form the cell, three parameters occur naturally in the veloped in conjunction with Cell 18 de act as a continuous hydraulic barrier. groundwater in the aquifer at concen sign and operations to effectively main Groundwater mounding within the trations approaching or exceeding the tain regulatory compliance and to ensure berms will act as a hydraulic barrier to drinking water criteria. Therefore, un that the groundwater quality beyond the the shallow, lateral movement of the der provincial policy, any increase in the Lambton Facility is not impacted. groundwater. The condition will pro concentration of these parameters in the Circle reply card No. 144 mote a discharge of the shallow groundwater to on-site ditches for collection and treatment.

The POLLUTE model was

used as a predictive tool to esti mate chemical loadings to the groundwater. The modelling fo cused on a group of chemicals

Figure 3

Conceptual Model Used For Cell 18 Transport Model Simulations

identified from a review of their

chemical and physical properties as having the potential to diffuse to the Interface Aquifer at con centrations of potential signifi cance to human and ecological receptors. The model results were expressed as maximum chemical concentrations in the

Interface Aquifer below the foot print of the landfill. To establish the potential impact on the aqui fer from a water use perspective, the results were compared on a parameter specific basis with cri teria established from MOBE

Figure 3: Conceptual model used for Cell 18 chemical transport simulations.

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

Regenerating Lakes

Fixaflor Equilibre regenerates natural balance of polluted lakes and ponds

Floating algae,duckweed,putrid

sludge and odours, and fish mortality due to oxygen depri vation can all be eliminated

that causes odours and turbidity. The phosphorus assimilated by the bacteria is discharged in the form of an insolu ble precipitate that remains attached to

with Fixaflor Equilibre, a sus tainable biological treatment system that efficiently restores the natural balance of lakes,

More than 150 ponds in France and Belgium have been effectively treated with the Fixaflor system. Floating al gae and duckweed are removed forever, while muddiness and putrid sludge are permanently elimi nated and oxygen restored. This results in a body of wa

ponds,irrigation water basins, rivers, lagoons, and fishbreeding facilities. Developed by the French company SCPA (Societe Commerciale des Potasses et de I'Azote),it takes only a few weeks for the wa ter to become clear and capa ble of sustaining aquatic

ter that is conducive to fish

breeding and offers renewed appeal to swimmers and an glers. Each 25 kg(55 lbs.) bag of Fixaflor contains a compound of porous limestone granules, specific nonpathogenic bacte ria selected for their ability to mineralize the water's organic matter, along with enzymes,

fauna.

Fixaflor Equilibre consists

nutrients, and trace elements.

of harmless bacteria attached

to a porous, nutritive medium that is launched from a bank

There is an urgent need to break the eutrophication cycle and restore the natural balance In waterways.

or small boat. Once settled at the bot

tom of the pond or lake, the bacteria begin to mineralize the organic matter

the porous support. This breaks the eutrophication cycle and restores the natural balance of the water.

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Backflow Prevention

By Wally Gross*

Residential backflow prevention begins at user connection

Many utilities are moving

towards implementing backflow prevention pro grams for single family residences. New integrated assemblies, designed specifically for residential backflow prevention, can now signifi cantly reduce a utility's labour require ments for implementing these programs. For more than a decade, water sup pliers in the USA have been prompted by the Environmental Protection Agency as well as state and local regu latory agencies to implement programs designed to protect public systems from backflow accidents. There has also been

the customer's piping system above the supply pressure at a point that would cause or tend to cause a reversal of the

normal direction of flow. Back siphonage, another cause of backflow, results from a reduction in system pressure that causes a sub-atmospheric pressure to ex ist at the site in the water system. Residual backflow most often occurs

when there is a drop in water pressure and the water outlet is submerged in a liquid. In this event, the liquid can be back-siphoned into the potable drinking water line and eventually contaminate the water in public distribution systems and other residences.

commercial and industrial programs. Government health departments and local ordinances have put more pressure on utilities to begin residential programs, and the fear of liability is becoming an additional driving force. Cross connections are the links

through which backflow can bring pol luting or contaminating materials into a public water distribution system. When the elimination of a cross connection is

impractical, such as at the user connec tion, protection through the installation of a backflow prevention device is nec essary. The two devices that are com monly used today for residences are

heightened awareness of backflow prevention in Canada. Although pro grams have concentrated primarily on preventing

double check assemblies and dual check assemblies. A double check assem

bly consists of two inde pendently-acting check

backflow occurrences at

valves, enclosed in a hous

industrial and commercial

plementing proactive pro

ing supplied with two shutoff valves and ball-type test cocks (test port valves).

grams to protect water sup

Double check valves are

sites, utilities are now im

ply systems from residen

in-line field testable, and

tial backflow.

field testing is required at least once per year by a cer

The labour require ments for retrofitting backflow prevention devices have long impeded the im plementation of compre hensive residential pro grams. New combination Two new combination meter/backfiow prevention assembiies have meter/backflow prevention reduced the iabour requirements for aidding backfiow prevention at

assemblies have now been

existing residentiai sites.

introduced that provide a standard lay ing length of7 1/2 inches, the same as a typical residential water meter. Backflow: An Overview Backflow is the undesirable reversal of the flow of water and other undesir

able substances from any source (such as used water, or any substance other than the intended potable water)into the distribution pipes of the potable water system. Backflow is caused by a differ ential in pressure that allows water to flow in the opposite direction through distribution pipes from an unintended source.

The common garden hose,for exam ple, is often identified as posing the highest potential for residential backflow occurrences. Contaminated water from hoses immersed in containers of

insecticides, fertilizers, herbicides or other hazardous materials can be back-

siphoned through the residential piping to the distribution system. Hazardous residential backflow conditions can also

occur when a swimming pool or a fish tank is filled with a submerged hose

tified backflow technician.

A dual check assembly consists of two independ ent check valves enclosed

in a housing. This type of assembly generally is not in-line field testable.

A utility typically se lects either a double check assembly or a dual check assembly for its residen tial backflow program, depending on program requirements. Water purvey ors have adopted the Canadian Stand ards Association (CSA), American So ciety of Sanitary Engineering (ASSE) or a Foundation for Cross-Connection

Control and Hydraulic Research at Uni versity of Southern California(FCCHR) standard for backflow prevention de vices. Of the two assemblies, FCCHR

merged in standing water, or a laundry

approves only double check devices. The CSA and ASSE approve both dou

hose is left in drain water.

ble check and dual check assemblies that

head, a flexible shower head is left sub

Backflow can be a result of back pres sure, which is any increase in pressure in

Residential Backflow Prevention

'Supervisor, Backflow Prevention City of Pompano Beach Utilities Pompano Beach, Florida

focus of many utilities is now moving towards implementing residential backflow prevention in addition to existing

Considering the magnitude of poten tial hazards in residential areas, the

Environmental Science & Engineering, November 1997

meet evaluation criteria. Retrofit Hassles

Implementing a system-wide resi dential backflow prevention program has been no simple task for utilities, es pecially retrofitting. To retrofit exist11

Backflow Prevention, cont'd. ing residential meter sites with either dual check or double check assemblies

can be labour-intensive and typically involves the installation of meter resetter

devices or performing expensive cut-ins. One major drawback to meter resetters is that they do not provide double check backflow protection(some resetters do, however, provide in-line test ing capabilities), so their use is not an option in localities that have adopted FCCHR standards. Resetters also pro vide four potential leak points,twice that of a conventional user connection; and

shop labour time is required to connect the meter horn to the backflow preven tion assembly. The alternative has involved making a cut-in for retrofitting dual or double check assemblies at existing residential meter sites - a one to two hour proce dure. Approximately 8",or more,ofline is cut and replumbed at the user con nection to allow space for the backflow preventer assembly. Frequently there is insufficient room by the meter if the

shown to significantly reduce the labour requirements for adding prevention at existing residential sites. By providing standard laying lengths of7 1/2", the in tegrated units manufactured by Schlumberger Industries eliminate the need for cut-ins or special resetters.

backflow prevention assemblies in stalled in its system and is one of the largest programs in south Florida. The utilities department has installed angled resetters for dual check backflow pre vention at all new residences since 1988.

The Double Check 5/8" x 3/4" T-IO

Approximately 750 of the devices are currently installed at residential sites.

consists oftwo independent acting check valves enclosed in a housing, supplied

a requirement that backflow prevention

In 1993, the State of Florida made it

with two shut-off valves and four verti

devices must be tested a minimum of

cal, ball-type test cocks. The unit is de signed as a double check backflow preventer (including in-line field test ability and repairability) while incorpo rating the manufacturer's 5/8" x 3/4" T10 meter as an integrated unit. The Dual

once per year. This essentially dictated

Check 5/8" x 3/4" T-10 consists of two

independent acting check valves en closed in a housing and incorporates a 5/8" X 3/4" T-10 meter as an integral unit. The assembly meets CSA and ASSE requirements of a dual and double check backflow preventer. Pompauo Beach,Florida Test The City ofPompano Beach,Florida,

that units must be in-line field testable.

The Pompano Beach Utilities Depart ment has since been searching for an in line, field-testable backflow prevention device that would allow it to meet the

new requirement(as well as likely more stringent future requirements), while remaining cost-effective to new residen tial customers. In addition, the depart ment had been searching for a device that would allow for less maintenance-

intensive retrofitting than conventional backflow preventers. The department installed integrated

basement is finished or the meter loca

was one of the initial test sites for the

Double Check 5/8" x 3/4" T-10 back-

tion is small and restricted. The labour

Double Check 5/8" x 3/4" T-10 back-

flow prevention devices at several resi

component for installing a separate me ter and backflow device can be prohibi tive. Integrated backflow meter assem blies are often a good solution for these applications. Integrated Assemblies

flow prevention device. The Florida Ad

dential sites, the first being installed in

ministrative Code requires that all com munity public water systems and any

July 1994. The units were subsequently in-line tested approximately every other

other public water systems (which

month to ensure the check valves re

means a non-transient or a non-commu

mained tight against reverse flow under all pressure differentials. Testing showed no leaks and opti mum check valve tightness against re verse flow. Headloss averaged 15-17 psi at 20 gpm -the total amount of pres sure lost through both the integral back-

reduce Retrofit Labour Two new combination meter/back-

flow prevention assemblies have been

nity water system) must have a written cross connection control program. Pompano Beach, with a population of 73,000 people, has close to 5,000

Ad Index ABS

flow device and meter. This loss rate is

Geddes & Rubin

Stonbard

Golder

Stormceptor

Air Liquide

37, 57

Anthrafilter

Aquablast

Barnes Env

Hach

Blastal Can Am Ins

56 17

Insituform

Cdn. Env. Auditing

DCPA

CH2IV1G&S

Paragon/Stanley

CPPA

Parkson

GSR Hydro Dagex

15, 57 12

Gorman-Rupp Great West Expo

ITT Flygl

3, 57 19

9 68

Zenon

48, 57

Praxair

Proctor & Redfern

Prominent

Delcan

Restoration

Denso

Safe Water

Schlumberger

14, 48 12

Eimco

48, 80

Entsorga

48, 71

Sci-Com

Security Ins

Shiralian

Envitec '98

Sigma Aldrich

Fiera Milano

Solmax

40A

Fluidyne

Statifio

6 45, 57 56

Thorburn Penny... 48, 67 Toronto Hydro 18 Trojan 17, 48 Victaulic

Derrick

Terratec

Davidson Env

Eckel

Team-1

57,76

2, 57

comparable to the typical total headloss through a separate, conventional double check device combined with a conven

tional 5/8" X 3/4" meter. It is also 3.0 -

9.0 psi at 20 gpm less total headloss than conventional resetter device/meter com binations.

Based on the trial results, the depart ment has initially ordered 118 of the in

tegrated backflow preventer/meter units for installation at single family resi dences. The department is also consid ering adopting the integrated unit for its ongoing residential meter change-out program, thereby systematically bring ing all existing residential user connec tions up to current and future regula tions. Because the meter components are interchangeable, the utility will have the flexibility to upgrade to automatic meter reading technology in the future. For more information, circle reply card No. 151 Environmental Science <6 Engineering, November 1997

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ur new 1900 WPC Process Particle Counter system is the ideal tool for

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For more information, Circle reply card No. 192(See page 17)