Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine | November/December 2023

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 WWW.ESEMAG.COM @ESEMAG

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OPERATOR & CONSULTANT FORUMS Removing metals and PFAS in wastewater Canada considers lower iron limit for drinking water Green innovations making constructed stormwater facilities more accessible

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CONTENTS

December 2023 • Vol. 36 No. 6 • ISSN-0835-605X

Editor and Publisher STEVE DAVEY steve@esemag.com Managing Editor PETER DAVEY peter@esemag.com Contributing Editor DAVID NESSETH david@esemag.com Sales Director PENNY DAVEY penny@esemag.com Sales Representative DENISE SIMPSON denise@esemag.com Accounting SANDRA DAVEY sandra@esemag.com Design & Production MIGUEL AGAWIN miguel@esemag.com Circulation BRIAN GILLETT ese@mysubscription.ca

TECHNICAL ADVISORY BOARD Archis Ambulkar, OCT Water Quality Academy Gary Burrows, City of London Patrick Coleman, Stantec Bill De Angelis, Metrolinx Mohammed Elenany, Urban Systems William Fernandes, City of Toronto Marie Meunier, John Meunier Inc., Québec Tony Petrucci, Black & Veatch Environmental Science & Engineering is a bi‑monthly business publication of Environmental Science & Engineering Publications Inc. An all Canadian publication, ES&E provides authoritative editorial coverage of Canada’s municipal and industrial environmental control systems and drinking water treatment and distribution.

Readers include consulting engineers, industrial plant managers and engineers, key municipal, provincial and federal environmental officials, water and wastewater plant operators and contractors.

Information contained in ES&E has been compiled from sources believed to be correct.

ES&E cannot be responsible for the accuracy of articles or other editorial matter. Articles in this magazine are intended to provide information rather than give legal or other professional advice.

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FEATURES 6 What a year 2023 turned out to be!

–Editorial comment 8 Ontario township returns to privatizing water system expansion 9 Metro Vancouver forms task force to guide North Shore WWTP project 10 New study sheds light on varying stormwater measures 12 Green innovations in stormwater facilities for smaller communities 16 Using electro-ceramic desalination to remove metals from industrial wastewater streams 19 In situ approach shown to be more sustainable and less costly for PFAS remediation in groundwater 33 FCM’s Green Municipal Fund paved way for nearly 1,500 projects 49 Buffalo piloting advanced Ontariobased technology for PFAS removal 50 Analyzing sediment depth in installed oil-grit separators 53 The importance of regional water and wastewater association events 60 Wastewater lift station upgrades position town for future growth 62 Water fleas hailed as latest wastewater treatment technology OPERATORS’ FORUM

22 Proper maintenance helps limit sanitary sewer overflows 24 New and seasoned Indigenous water operators recognized

www.esemag.com @ESEMAG 4 | December 2023

27 Four important reasons to choose CO2 to reduce drinking water pH 30 Video shows worker clearing grease, fat in sewer to raise awareness 31 Full operations may not resume at Wheatley’s WTP for a year 32 Canada considers lower iron limit for drinking water CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

34 What is a consultant’s role in helping clients adopt new technologies and managing change?

37 When a design team makes errors, or does not pay attention to details, operations staff bear the burden 40 Why now is the time to ensure the future success of the environment sector 43 Complacency to catastrophe: The perils of neglecting cybersecurity 45 How engineers and Indigenous communities can redefine consultation 47 Engineering firms can bolster internal teams by hiring outside consultants DEPARTMENTS

54 News 57 Product Showcase 60 Professional Cards 62 Ad Index

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EDITORIAL COMMENT BY STEVE DAVEY

What a year 2023 turned out to be!

I

n January, my wife and I were 18.4 million hectares of land. Who can However, the preponderance of blessed with a second granddaughter, global-scale environmental issues forget the evacuation of Yellowknife making us three-time grandparents. just a few months ago, as well as this year has seemed at times A wonderful time of our lives indeed, overwhelming. striking photos of a smoke-tinted New but one that we have found brings York skyline this summer.

In late November, the World the return of protective paternal and In July, a provincial state of Meteorological Organization (WMO) maternal instincts. Myself, I experiemergency was declared in Nova released its provisional State of the enced a new anxiety over the state of Scotia as a result of flooding caused Global Climate report that confirms the global environment. by dramatic levels of rainfall – up to that this year is set to be the warmest For decades, I have been involved 250 mm in a 24-hour period. on record. Data until the end of with the municipal water and Humans are certainly not the only October showed that 2023 was about wastewater sectors. It has always been 1.40 degrees Celsius above the prespecies affected by climate change. my honest belief that in North America, industrial 1850 to 1900 baseline.

According to a recent media statement water and wastewater professionals In a media release, WMO stated that from an organization called A Place for have provided stellar service, protected the natural environment, and safeguarded public health.

The industry continues to respond Thanks to environmental protection efforts, I’m confident to new threats to public health, such as growing awareness and scrutiny of my grandchildren will enjoy safe drinking water and a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances minimally-impacted natural environment. However, the (PFAS) in the environment, and in preponderance of global-scale environmental issues this particular water. According to Gareth year has seemed at times overwhelming.

Leonard, “remediating PFAS will require a tremendous response to address thousands of contaminant plumes in groundwater in Canada alone.” His company has developed a patented colloidal activated carbon, Animals (www.aplaceforanimals.com) 2015 to 2023, were the warmest years which gets injected into contaminated over 538 animal and plant species are on record and that the El Niño event, groundwater to form a subsurface dangling on the edge of extinction due which emerged during the Northern PFAS filter. A recent study showed that Hemisphere spring of 2023 and to human-driven climate alterations. this approach will stop PFAS plume More alarmingly, the organization developed rapidly during summer, is migration. (See articles on pages 18 and adds that a total of 42,100 species likely to further fuel the heat in 2024.

49 for PFAS treatment advances.) are threatened with extinction for a “Greenhouse gas levels are record Typically, I have to review and edit number of reasons. high. Global temperatures are record up to 200 articles per year on these As a grandfather and world citizen, I high. Sea level rise is record high. subjects in preparation for publishing wholeheartedly agree with Taalas Antarctic sea ice is at a record low. them in ES&E Magazine. With each when he says that: “These are more It’s a deafening cacophony of broken one, I feel comforted by the effort than just statistics. We cannot return records,” said WMO Secretarythat goes into designing, building, to the climate of the 20th century, but General Petteri Taalas. operating, monitoring and regulating we must act now to limit the risks of Canada certainly felt the effects of our water and environmental an increasingly inhospitable climate in a changing climate, with hot and dry protection infrastructure, as well this and the coming centuries.” weather fuelling a record number of as the technological improvements wildfires, as well as rainfall causing Steve Davey is the that occur constantly. Thanks to devastating floods. According to the editor and publisher of these efforts, I’m confident my Canadian Interagency Forest Fire grandchildren will enjoy safe drinking ES&E Magazine. Please Centre National Fire Summary, 6,623 water and a minimally-impacted email any comments fires have been recorded nationally you may have to steve@esemag.com natural environment. in 2023, burning a total of more than 6 | December 2023

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WATER

Ontario township returns to privatizing water system expansion in face of housing pressure

By ES&E Staff

O

ntario’s Mapleton Township, which is located about an hour north of Toronto, is returning to its plan to privatize its water and wastewater expansion, after terminating a similar deal at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

Mapleton Chief Administrative Officer Manny Baron told council that a new school and daycare won’t be a reality if the township doesn’t act now. Its 11,000 residents have already waited six years for local officials to decide how to approach the water infrastructure upgrades. With a traditional borrowing and staging approach, it could take more than 10 years and $23 million to complete a new wastewater treatment plant and an expansion of the current water treatment plant, according to a new CAO report.

The report states that, “by forming a partnership, we can significantly reduce the timeline without causing an unmanageable increase in rates. This partnership is crucial to expedite the process and achieve our goals efficiently.”

Baron, whose report recommended partnering with private enterprise and establishing a municipal service corporation, said there is strong pressure from all levels of government in Ontario to expand available housing within the community and meet the 1.5 million new homes target over the next 10 years to address the supply shortage.

“Us being in the Golden Horseshoe, it’s important that we begin this journey once and for all,” Baron told council. “It’s time to move forward, get some pricing, and get this plant built.”

The township, which consists of Drayton, Moorefield and Rothsay, had applied for, but failed to secure, funding from the province for a new water tower in the past and has struggled to upgrade the capacity of its sewage treatment plant to meet the needs of the growing population.

According to the Official Plan for the County of Wellington, population is projected to grow in the county from 95,805 to 140,000 by 2041.

In summer 2020, the township pulled out of a planned public-private partnership (P3) to deliver its new water and wastewater facility. The plan had been supported with a $20 million commitment from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB). At the time, local officials determined there was too much risk attached to the P3 venture.

The 2020 P3 had been viewed by the CIB, an arm’s-length federal agency, as a key pilot model for municipalities who wanted to modernize their water and wastewater systems through alternative financing sources. P3s had yet to be used for smaller water infrastructure projects, and have generally 8 | December 2023

The Mapleton Township had applied for, but failed to secure, funding from the province for a new water tower in the past. Credit: Township of Mapleton

been reserved for projects costing at least $100 million.

In March, however, the CIB and English River First Nation in Saskatchewan announced a $27.3 million financing agreement for a new wastewater treatment facility in 2024.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, and the Council of Canadians, both campaigned against Mapleton’s P3 venture. They warned the township that it would lose control, transparency and accountability over its own projects.

Mapleton’s officials had planned to build a new water tower, reduce leakage, upgrade its existing water pumping station, and expand the capacity of its wastewater treatment plant.

Its water systems are maintained by the Ontario Clean Water Agency.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

WASTEWATER

Metro Vancouver forms task force to guide unfinished North Shore WWTP project

By ES&E Staff

M

etro Vancouver has formed a new task force to review all available options for completing the troubled North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project.

Local officials terminated their contract with the plant’s original builder in 2021 due to missed project milestones and ballooning costs. Two years later, challenges persist for the project as it faces “extreme market volatility,” says Delta Mayor George Harvie.

The project had originally been scheduled to be completed

by December 2020 at a cost of $500 million, but ended up years behind schedule and soaring beyond $1 billion. “This project has experienced extraordinary circumstances that have come at an unfortunate time of extreme market volatility for Canada,” Harvie, who is also chair of the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors, announced in a statement.

Soaring supply chain costs have impacted projects across Canada. During the summer, Durham Region, Ontario, officials cancelled the procurement process to build a $200-million mixed waste pre-sort and anaerobic digestion facility.

While Metro Vancouver project officials are not revealing a new cost estimate for the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant, they explained that they are still working to address “deficiencies.”

“As we work to define a path forward to complete this project and address deficiencies left by the previous contractor, we are unfortunately beholden to the same extremely challenging market conditions that are significantly impacting infrastructure projects throughout British Columbia and across the country,” announced Jerry Dobrovolny, commissioner and CAO of Metro Vancouver, in a statement.

District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little told local media that there are an estimated 1,200 deficiencies remaining for the build project.

Acciona Wastewater Solutions LP is pursuing a lawsuit against Metro Vancouver for nearly $300 million in the form of damages and withheld compensation from the wastewater treatment plant project.

Following termination of the Acciona contract, Metro Vancouver hired PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. to act as general contractor on the project. AECOM is the design consultant.

The new wastewater treatment plant is needed to accommodate population growth and new housing. It is being built to serve 250,000 residents and businesses in the Districts of West and North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and the www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

Architectural rendering of the new North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. Graphic: Metro Vancouver

Squamish and TsleilWaututh First Nations. The new plant will improve the quality of the treated wastewater released into the Burrard Inlet.

The project also involves decommissioning the existing Lions Gate Wastewater Treatment Plant. Over the coming months, task force officials said they will present the Metro Vancouver Board with “options for careful consideration”. The timeline for the task force to report their findings and recommendations to the Board is expected to be mid-2024.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

December 2023 | 9

STORMWATER

New study sheds light on varying stormwater measures

By ES&E Staff

A

recent study attempts to identify meaningful patterns among different stormwater control measures in 23 cities with varying climates across the U.S. The study, produced by researchers from six universities, as well as the Water Research Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey, is an attempt to understand more about what makes a particular piece of stormwater infrastructure “site specific”.

By examining various physical, climatic, socioeconomic, and regulatory factors driving the choices behind each city’s stormwater strategy, researchers could compare the different stormwater control measures (SCMs) in terms of slope and proximity to the water table, its typical climate, and also population density. They could also see whether it contained combined or separate collection systems, and the strictness of regulatory obligations.

“Cities with more resources can lead on advancing knowledge and practice by monitoring and evaluating SCM networks,” said Aditi Bhaskar, study co-author and environmental engineer at the University of Colorado Boulder. “These cities can also benefit from learning about the approaches used by other cities, for example, to share information on effectiveness of approaches.”

Bhaskar says that many cities are shifting towards green SCMs, and in order to understand how effective these measures have been, the location needs to be considered in the analysis. “Our work contributes to sharing of information about what type of stormwater management is used where, in a way that other cities can understand the terminology used,” Bhaskar added.

In 2021, the same group of researchers attempted to simplify and condense stormwater terminology to create a more standardized database. They asked cities to focus on the functions or mechanics of particular SCMs, rather than their 10 | December 2023

Many cities are shifting towards green stormwater control measures, with physical, climatic, socioeconomic, and regulatory factors driving the choices behind each city’s stormwater strategy.

Credit: sunflowerey, stock.adobe.com

names. Green roofs became a category of filters, for example, while permeable pavers became infiltrators.

In this way, they condensed dozens of potential SCM types into just seven categories: basins, swales and strips, filters, infiltrators, gross pollutant traps, disconnection, and a miscellaneous catchall category for other types.

In the researchers’ latest study, when it comes to understanding why a city chooses a particular stormwater control measure, the study found that the strongest determinants were physical considerations such as the amount of impervious space, its average slope, its distance to the water table, and its use of groundwater.

For example, those of the 23 cities that were not limited by a shallow water table, generally chose infiltrators over basins, strips and swales, or filters, but infiltrators were far less common in low-lying cities.

The infiltrators class included such SCMs

as infiltration basins and vaults, trenches, dry wells, and permeable pavers. By contrast, such climatic variables as average precipitation and temperatures, aridity, and water-vapour pressures seemed to have little or no correlation with any particular type of SCM, the study found.

Among the five cities in the study that are subject to orders from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, filters such as sand, bioretention schemes, green roofs, and others, were substantially more common, the study found.

Los Angeles was found to maintain the lowest density of SCMs, with as few as 0.46 per square kilometre of impervious area, while Washington, D.C. operates as many as 314 SCMs per square kilometre.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

STORMWATER

Green innovations making constructed stormwater facilities more accessible to smaller communities in Manitoba

By Dr. Nicholson Jeke, Lisette Ross and Dr. Bruce Friesen-Pankratz

T

he recent announcement that the Canada Water Agency will be headquartered in Winnipeg, and the Province’s formation of a Wastewater Task Force—a group of specialists brought together to advance wastewater initiatives—have put the water industry’s attention on Manitoba.

What many don’t realize is that Manitoba has been leading the way in water initiatives for some time by employing innovative green infrastructure projects since the early 2000s.

Much of this innovation is driven by necessity. Ongoing water quality challenges in Lake Winnipeg, the world’s 10th largest freshwater lake, have been impossible to overlook. It has experienced ever-pressing water quality challenges since the 1970s with increasing frequencies and intensities of cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) blooms.

Some years, these blooms have covered more than 10,000 km2 of Lake Winnipeg’s 23,750 km2 surface area. Similar algal blooms now regularly occur in smaller recreational lakes throughout the province. This is unfortunate, since many of these lakes play an important role in defining Manitoba’s geography, shaping its culture and economies, supporting biodiversity and hydroelectric energy generation.

Historically, water quality solutions were focused on improvement strategies closest to the lakes themselves. In the last 20 years, this has changed with recognition of the importance of green infrastructure projects within watersheds. This is particularly true in Lake Winnipeg’s watershed, which covers an area 40 times larger than the lake itself and is home to six million people, 17 million livestock and 55 million hectares of agricultural land.

Lake Winnipeg possesses the largest 12 | December 2023

Naturalized stormwater retention facility in Winnipeg.

“lake to watershed” ratio of large lakes in the world with its watershed boundary crossing four provinces and four U.S. states. Implementing solutions beyond its shoreline is therefore a must.

In 2009, Manitoba enacted legislation requiring the reduction of phosphorus in fertilizers applied in urban and rural residential areas, and near provincial lakes and rivers. Additional legislative measures included the protection of riparian buffer zones, restrictions on the land application of nutrients in winter months, and the development of nutrient management plans for golf courses and agricultural operations across the province.

In 2011, the province enacted additional legislation requiring municipalities to meet reduced phosphorus and nitrogen targets before discharging treated wastewater into receiving waterways.

This legislation has driven green infrastructure innovation across Manitoba. Innovation has been supported

through our scientific understanding of the capacity of these systems (e.g., native plants and soils) to sequester and modify nutrients of concern, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. Innovation has also been supported through our need to provide solutions that are sustainable, cost-effective, and support ancillary benefits such as climate amelioration and biodiversity.

Two green infrastructure strategies have now been adopted across the province. These include naturalized stormwater retention facilities (NSFs) and constructed wetlands for the tertiary treatment of wastewater in municipal lagoons.

More than 100 naturalized stormwater retention facilities have become operational in Manitoba since 2003, and six communities have constructed treatment wetlands in their new wastewater lagoon systems since 2017.

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

A NEW APPROACH USING NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

In 2003, Winnipeg developers partnered with Native Plant Solutions, a consulting division of Ducks Unlimited Canada, to develop strategies and designs for the first NSFs. These naturalized strategies and designs leveraged the non-profit’s research and knowledge of natural wetland systems. The benefits of these new designs included improved flood resilience, reduced maintenance costs and chemical use, and even biodiversity gains.

Water depths and pond footprints applied in conventional systems remained unchanged below the normal water level (NWL) in naturalized facilities for the most part. What did change was the introduction of naturalized design elements to support the establishment and growth of a thriving wetland plant community below NWL. Sod was replaced upslope of NWL with an upland native grass community that was resilient to the short-term flooding events stormwater facilities

such as these often experience. This not only mimicked what is observed for uplands surrounding natural wetlands, but it also helped to greatly reduce the ongoing maintenance costs associated with cutting sod. Gone also was the need to either chemically treat or physically remove unwanted vegetation or algae blooms often present in conventional stormwater retention facilities (CSFs).

Various versions of the naturalized stormwater design guidelines implemented in Manitoba are publicly available through a number of websites, including the Government of Alberta, the City of Brandon, and the City of Moncton.

By mimicking the flora and fauna present in natural wetland systems, NSFs use a multi-pronged approach for improving water quality. Sediment retention is improved by dissipating and dispersing flow energy. This allows time for sediment particles to settle out.

Wetland plants that possess a high demand for phosphorus and nitrogen to support their growth are increased below

NWL. These two processes (settling and plant uptake) not only continue to improve stormwater quality, but they also support the establishment of healthy bacteria and algae communities that become key in the uptake of excess nutrients and breakdown of pathogens and pesticides.

Supplementary to these design elements is the added value of biodiversity support.

While constructed treatment wetlands for wastewater have had a long track record of success in the U.S., they still remain relatively new in Canada. Highly technical and costly solutions recommended for wastewater treatment have almost always been out of reach for many of Manitoba’s smaller communities.

After 2011, industry specialists needed to move quickly to arrive at cost-effective and proven solutions for these communities. Many municipalities also voiced their concerns over the effort needed, and the costs associated with the ongoing application of products such as alum and ferric chloride to meet the provcontinued overleaf…

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STORMWATER

Example of a treatment wetland in Manitoba for wastewater improvement immediately after its construction. (Right) The same treatment wetland after site commissioning and prior to project hand-off.

ince’s phosphorus reduction targets.

Ducks Unlimited Canada recognized the potential of treatment wetlands to service both small to mid-size communities based on their own experience in the design and construction of wastewater treatment wetlands in Manitoba in the 1990s. The success of those earlier treatment wetlands constructed by the non-profit helped lay the foundation for the acceptance of treatment wetlands since 2017.

Like naturalized stormwater facilities, constructed treatment wetlands use many of the same wetland processes to attain the water quality targets set by the province. Plants in these systems utilize nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen to sustain their metabolism with an important portion of nutrients permanently deposited as new soils or sediment every year.

By introducing unique design strategies, other contaminants such as volatile hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace metals can be sequestered, transformed, or their removal rates improved.

What has been evident in the success of these green infrastructure strategies in Manitoba is the important role of project support. Staying with these projects from design through commissioning is key to their success. This ensures projects are operating “as designed” before hand-off to the client occurs. It also ensures that those responsible for the ongoing maintenance of these systems know what is 14 | December 2023

required of them into the future.

Science and research have played an integral role in the adoption of the green infrastructure strategies in Manitoba. While much is known about these systems already, additional water quality research along with studies on fauna, greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon sequestration, help to confirm their performance and support their adoption.

A study in Winnipeg in 2021 examined differences in phosphorus concentrations in CSFs and NSFs over a season. NSFs maintained low phosphorus levels (< 0.2 mg/L), while CSFs showed significantly higher phosphorus concentrations with spikes reaching 3.3 mg/L. These findings show that downstream water quality can be improved by incorporating NSFs into urban developments even decades after their introduction.

In Manitoba, treatment wetlands designed for phosphorus removal from municipal lagoons must meet < 1 mg/L total phosphorus targets for wastewater prior to release into the receiving environment. Research by Ducks Unlimited Canada is showing that these wetlands are achieving up to 90% phosphorus removal.

In many cases, wastewater released from treatment wetlands is cleaner than the receiving waterbody. Treatment wetlands can also enhance wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent quality, exemplified by a treatment wetland recently added to a WWTP in southern B.C. This plant produces high-quality effluent averaging 0.15 mg/L total phos-

phorus and 3 mg/L total nitrogen.

Here, the treatment wetland further reduces nitrogen and phosphorus by about 75%. During spring, summer and fall months, passing WWTP effluent through the treatment wetland adds an additional one-third reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus loading to the receiving river. The data showcases treatment wetlands’ efficacy in polishing effluent and mitigating environmental risks beyond even tertiary treatment potential.

The experience and findings from the adoption of green infrastructure in managing stormwater and wastewater treatment in Manitoba collectively emphasize the role that nature-based solutions like NSFs and treatment wetlands can play in mitigating the water quality impacts of urban development and wastewater treatment. It also provides a host of ancillary benefits like biodiversity support and flood attenuation.

Sharing insights and data from such green infrastructure projects can enhance the overall comprehension of sustainable water quality management approaches, providing valuable guidance for implementing similar initiatives in communities of all sizes across Canada.

Dr. Nicholson Jeke and Lisette Ross are with Ducks Unlimited Canada. Email: n_jeke@ducks.ca, l_ross@ducks.ca. Dr. Bruce FriesenPankratz is with Providence University.

Email: bruce.friesen-pankratz@prov.ca

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WASTEWATER

Using electro-ceramic desalination to remove metals from industrial wastewater streams

By Greg Newbloom

T

here is increasing demand for products where the manufacturing facilities and processes generate metal wastewater that present numerous challenges.

Increasingly strict regulatory requirements are putting the squeeze on capacity and complicating compliance for industrial wastewater treatment.

Often, industrial facilities are not equipped to easily adapt to changes, or handle the rising costs of wastewater treatment.

Together, these challenges drive complex trade-offs in electric vehicle (EV), semiconductor, and other industries that deal with metal wastewater.

Metal wastewaters often have high concentrations of metals that exceed many environmental discharge limits. In recent years, the types of metals covered under government guidelines were updated to include lead, chromium and mercury, leading to a need for reduced emissions of these.

High demand for products is leading facilities to run at, or near, capacity for their existing wastewater treatment processes. Lack of wastewater treatment capacity can put significant strains on operators and engineers, and have a direct impact on the revenue a facility can generate. Building new wastewater treatment infrastructure can take years, and may require space that existing facilities just don’t have.

In working toward compliance, some facilities are driven by convenience, and some are driven by cost. Those driven by convenience may truck their wastewater off site. In this manner, there are fewer facility adaptations and expenditures required, and trucking wastewater off site may reduce capital expenditures, because there are no major process or facility changes required.

However, there are increased greenhouse gas emissions, high costs, reliance on third-party operators, reputational risks, and other tolls associated with a program reliant on trucking wastewater as the primary metal wastewater stream solution.

When one focuses specifically on some facilities with concentrated metals streams (e.g., copper, nickel, arsenic) that are highly acidic and toxic and are trucked off site for disposal/incineration at a remote location, one realizes that this method costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. More dilute metal streams—also highly acidic—are typically treated with single-use conventional selective ion exchange resins.

The concentration of metals in wastewater dictates how often the resins will require replacement with fresh resin beds.

Exhausted resin beds are trucked off site for either disposal or regeneration before they can be used again. This process is expensive and results in massive operational costs each year.

16 | December 2023

Metal wastewater streams from manufacturing processes contain lithium, copper, and other metals.

The most common practice for dealing with harsh metal wastewater is chemical coagulation, flocculation, dewatering and sludge removal. This process generates hazardous byproducts and requires a tight feedback loop between metal ion concentration and chemical usage to ensure standards are met.

These processes tend to require a large physical footprint and are very challenging to expand and adapt to changing capacity and compliance needs.

There is a need for simpler, smaller, and more flexible options for alleviating wastewater treatment capacity constraints. Membrion has numerous ongoing and successful projects removing these metals from harsh wastewater streams.

The company uses nano-structured silica (sand) in its patented membrane technology.

This nanoporous silica selectively removes problematic dissolved salts, metals and minerals from wastewater and concentrates them into a small-volume stream that can be processed with the existing on-site infrastructure. The durability of the membrane against acids, oxidizers, foulants, particles and other wastewater contaminants ensures minimal-to-no pre-treatment requirements in advance of the electro-ceramic continued overleaf…

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

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WASTEWATER desalination process, which provides swift and significant return on investment (ROI).

Membrion’s ceramic desalination membranes work in highly acidic and oxidizing wastewater streams, thanks to their amorphous silica structure. These membranes are proven to have significant advantages in concentrating harsh metal wastewater streams. Beyond expanding capacity and achieving compliance, these membranes help customers see significant operational cost savings by reducing the trucking of wastewater off site, by reducing the contaminant loading on the conventional ion exchange beds, or by reducing the chemical requirements for coagulation.

The electro-ceramic desalination (ECD) process treats metal wastewater streams to compliant levels and reduces problematic metals into a brine waste with as little as 2% of the original volume. This waste can be trucked off site, processed with existing chemical coagulation processes, or further treated via electrowinning processes to extract the concentrated metal from the ECD brine.

In this case, that means eliminating the need for trucking of any waste. The ECD treated wastewater either meets the sewer discharge limits, is suitable for reuse, or can be further polished by conventional ion exchange resin beds, if needed.

Membrion’s membranes are also used to reduce the contaminant loading onto conventional single-use ion exchange resin beds, which are typically used to treat diluted metal wastewater streams. An ECD system is installed as a pretreatment step and removes the bulk of the dissolved metals from the wastewater before it enters the conventional ion exchange beds.

This process addition greatly reduces the frequency (sometimes 10 times less) with which the ion exchange beds must be replaced after exhaustion.

Incorporating electro-ceramic desalination technology to treat these challenging wastewater streams can often yield a ROI to customers in less than two years.

One EV battery manufacturer had its lithium wastewater stream trucked off site. After conducting a pilot study, Membrion was able to reduce the volume of trucking by 92% and reduce the concentration of lithium by 90% – 92%. Results showed that utilizing this technology 18 | December 2023

Ceramic desalination membranes are flexible and durable.

would mean a ROI of less than 13 months to the customer.

A different pilot study was conducted for a customer with a concentrated copper wastewater stream that was being trucked off site. Results showed a reduction of trucking volume by 80% and copper concentration reduction by 99%.

This meant less than a two-year ROI to the customer was possible.

In cases where an ECD system can unlock new revenue for a facility that is at treatment capacity, or eliminate fines from discharge compliance issues, the system ROI can be just a few months.

Additionally, these novel and customizable membrane modules also alleviate health and environmental issues.

The health and environmental concerns associated with metal in wastewater and the desire to meet new sustainability goals are both significant. However, the cost of non-compliance is great, and fear of the negative impacts of non-compliance has driven companies to innovative technologies such as Membrion’s. Fines for non-compliance can be in the multiple millions, and the cost of cleanup and of installing and operating water treatment systems is significant. A company’s public reputation is also negatively impacted when non-compliance comes to light. All are reasons for pursuing new, sustainable

methods for metal wastewater treatment.

Integrated solutions exist for compliance and meeting environment goals, and there are opportunities to alleviate wastewater capacity constraints. For industries dealing with harsh wastewater streams, knowing that environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), and sustainable development (SDG) goals can be met means that relief is on the horizon.

Greg Newbloom is with Membrion.

Email: greg@membrion.com

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

PFAS

Life cycle analysis proves in situ approach is more sustainable and cost‑effective for PFAS remediation

By Gareth Leonard

R

emediating PFAS will require a tremendous response to address thousands of contaminant plumes in groundwater in Canada alone. Since PFAS do not biodegrade, they migrate farther than most common groundwater contaminants, such as benzene, trichloroethylene (TCE), with plumes often extending well beyond their sources, affecting large aquifer volumes.

When these PFAS plumes threaten wellfields, surface water bodies, or other receptors, they must be contained to eliminate exposure risks and environmental impacts. The widespread occurrence, persistence, and voluminous size of PFAS plumes are factors that combine to threaten many of these potential receptors, presenting a daunting challenge to environmental remediation practitioners.

METHODS TO CONTAIN A PFAS PLUME

Hydraulic containment is an ex situ method where groundwater is pumped above ground to create a hydraulic barrier (capture zone) in the aquifer that the plume cannot move beyond. The pumped groundwater is treated to remove PFAS, typically by filtering with carbon or other sorbent materials.

Pumping must be continuously maintained until the plume stops advancing, which in the case of PFAS, may take centuries. Additionally, these pump-andtreat processes accumulate PFAS-saturated wastes that must be managed and disposed of. A newer foam-fractionation process that concentrates the PFAS has been shown to reduce the waste stream, but at the significant expense of more energy applied, resulting in a higher carbon footprint.

Alternatively, passive filtration is an in situ approach that involves injecting the patented colloidal activated carbon, or www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

CAC technology, into the groundwater to form a subsurface PFAS filter. Contaminants are quickly removed as the groundwater containing PFAS contaminants passes through the filtration zone.

Once a PFAS subterranean filter is in place, no energy is required to operate it and since the treatment occurs below ground, no waste is generated.

On a per plume basis, whether the ex situ or in situ approach is employed, billions of litres of groundwater may require treatment over decades-long time frames.

Government agencies worldwide seek effective and economical methods to address environmental pollution while minimizing raw material/energy usage, greenhouse gases, and waste during the remediation process. As such, sustainability will ultimately drive the remediation decision-making to contain these plumes.

An evaluation of remediation sustainability was recently completed at a commercial airport in the UK to determine the most sustainable remediation solution to stop a PFAS plume from migrating toward a sensitive receptor.

In recent years, numerous methods and tools have been developed to assess and quantify the relative sustainability of remediation approaches and are gaining widespread adoption. At the UK com-

mercial airport site, several assessment methods were employed to provide a comprehensive sustainability evaluation of ex situ and in situ remedies to contain the PFAS plume.

Specifically, these methods included a life cycle assessment (LCA), a life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), and a sustainability assessment. Ramboll, a global engineering, architectural, and consulting firm, conducted the extensive evaluation, which is considered the most comprehensive assessment to date for remediating a PFAS contaminant plume in groundwater.

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)

The LCA was completed according to ISO 14044/ISO 14025 for a real-world application of a CAC permeable sorptive barrier, commercially available as PlumeStop, located downgradient of the PFAS source at the airport site. Two alternative pump-and-treat approaches, where groundwater is pumped to the surface and treated either by filtering with granular activated carbon (GAC) or concentrating the PFAS waste stream using foam fractionation (FF), were evaluated for comparison.

These remedial methods were designed to achieve the same containment goal: preventing a PFAS plume’s off-site migration in groundwater toward sensitive receptors over a project life cycle of 15 years.

Ramboll completed the LCA using the GaBi Professional LCA software tool, meeting the EN 15804 international standard for an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). EPDs are standardized and verified reports that provide transparent and comparable information about the environmental performance of a product over its entire life cycle.

For the CAC material, the life cycle boundaries extend from “cradle to grave’” continued overleaf…

December 2023 | 19

PFAS based on the total cost of ownership in net present value (NPV).

As with the LCA, a 15-year time frame was used for the evaluation. The results of the LCCA showed the in situ method to be 2.5 to 2.8 times less expensive (61% to 65% cost reduction), saving the project between $2.4 to $2.9 million ($USD equivalent) over 15 years.

PFAS plume

SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT

PlumeStop Barrier

GW

Flo w

The life cycle analysis was completed for a real-world application of PlumeStop, a CAC permeable sorptive barrier.

Sorbent

Source Sewer

Plume

PFAS plume

Extraction wells

Finally, a Tier 2 sustainability assessment was completed by Ramboll using its SURE model, a free, publicly accessible model, complying with ISO 18504:2017 and ASTM E2893-16. It evaluates 15 sustainability indicators pertaining to the environment, society, and the economy.

Each indicator was numerically scored for each option on a scale of one to five, with one reflecting the worst option and five the best with respect to sustainability.

The results of the sustainability assessment using SURE showed that the in situ approach had a 100% overall higher sustainability score.

Informed by the first-of-its-kind multi-faceted remediation sustainability evaluation for PFAS, the in situ CAC remedy was selected to mitigate the PFAS plume at the study site. The remedy was also applied at another private airport site in the UK during the same time frame.

IN SITU CAC FILTRATION OF PFAS

Working with the airport managers, environmental consultants, and regulatory authorities, CAC subsurface PFAS filtration zones were installed at the two Two alternative pump-and-treat approaches, were evaluated for comparison during the life UK airport sites to clean up groundwacycle analysis. ter and eliminate PFAS risk. Initial partial-scale applications were designed at including upstream material sourcing, tration approach has a 40 to 70 times lower both sites to assess the approach’s effeccore manufacturing processes, and the carbon footprint, negating thousands of tiveness and allow for fine-tuning the downstream processes of transport and tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. remedial designs before full-scale impleinjection. The pump-and-treat boundar- Additionally, the in situ approach has a mentation. ies encompass the equipment manufac- 95+% smaller raw material, energy and After installation, PFOS and PFOA, turing and civil works for system con- waste footprint. the targeted PFAS compounds for treatstruction, system operation & maintement, were reduced below detection nance (O&M), and waste management. LIFE CYCLE COST ANALYSIS limits. Additionally, the total PFAS conRemediation performance monitoring An LCCA is an economic method for centrations were also reduced signifiis considered for all cases. assessing the total life cycle cost of own- cantly. These reductions were maintained ership, accounting for all costs of acquir- throughout the assessment period for LCA RESULTS ing, building, owning, and disposing of the initial phase applications.

Compared to using pump-and-treat an object, process, or project. The LCCA The results of the initial phase applicato achieve the same PFAS-exposure- for the commercial airport site com- tions were presented to the project stakerisk-elimination goal, the in situ CAC fil- pared the three remediation alternatives holders, including the local and national GW F low

20 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

regulatory authorities, who authorized implementing the full-scale applications at both sites.

CONCLUSIONS

As environmental regulations for PFAS are beginning to be promulgated, groundwater remediation professionals will soon be challenged with addressing PFAS pollution economically while avoiding further environmental impacts caused by the cleanup activities.

Now more than ever, simply containing a plume before it impacts drinking water wells, surface waters, or other receptors is not enough. Sustainable remediation approaches must be employed to promote greater community and ecological sustainability, towards a future that is more viable, pleasant, and secure.

The in situ CAC remedy applied at the UK commercial airport site reduces the carbon footprint by 98% and saves the project millions of dollars in unnecessary costs, while reducing waste, energy, and raw material usage by 95%.

Sustainable remediation is defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 18504:2017) as “the elimination and/or control of unacceptable risks in a safe and timely manner whilst optimizing the environmental, social, and economic value of the work.”

This approach will stop PFAS plume migration by filtering more than a quarter billion litres of groundwater in place over 15 years, effectively eliminating the exposure risk with no pumping involved.

These CAC barriers can be flexibly designed to accommodate site-specific remediation time frames, typically spanning decades.

Widescale adoption of PlumeStop CAC to mitigate PFAS exposure risk promises

to save billions of dollars and eliminate millions of tons of CO2 emissions, while protecting drinking water resources and public health.

Gareth Leonard is with REGENESIS. Email: gleonard@regenesis.com

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December 2023 | 21

SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Training programs help correct common cleaning errors which can waste water, labour, and time.

Proper maintenance helps limit sanitary sewer overflows

By Del Williams

O

ne of the greatest underlying causes of sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) is sewer pipe blockages due to growing tree roots that enter through line defects or openings, combined with inappropriate materials sent to sewers. This includes fats, oils, and grease along with products like baby or facial wipes, sanitary pads, and tampons. Non-degradable wipes are a particular problem when flushed because they get hung up in roots and start catching all the grease and debris.

Everything builds until the line is stopped, which leads to an SSO. Proactively preventing blockages and removing those in progress is critical 22 | December 2023

because failing to do so can lead to devastating consequences. Sewer pipes fill up from any blockage and can back up into homes or run down the street, so a certain amount of sewer line must be properly maintained annually, or fines are levied.

Fortunately for municipalities, using the industry’s most effective tools and techniques can virtually eliminate SSOs, and in some instances, have done so for decades.

This is first achieved by preventing most sewer line blockages with powerful nozzles and efficient cleaning. Next, camera nozzles can quickly identify developing blockages during routine cleaning without deploying a separate

camera crew. When the blockages must be removed, utilizing various cutters including robust chain cutters can do so quickly and efficiently. Finally, learning the most effective cleaning techniques from experts in the industry can further facilitate proper sewer line maintenance.

PREVENTING SSOS

Properly designed, operated, and maintained sanitary sewer systems are meant to collect and transport all the wastewater that flows into them to treatment facility. However, occasional unintentional discharges of raw sewage from municipal sanitary sewers occur in almost every system.

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

The first line of defense against such SSOs is to use effective tools, specifically powerful nozzles, to sufficiently clean sewer lines and remove any debris so it does not accumulate to become a blockage. In this effort, using high-performance Tier 3 nozzles instead of lower performing Tier 1 or 2 nozzles can be an important advantage.

Although rated for water efficiency (Tier 1: about 30 percent efficient; Tier 2: 50 to 60 percent efficient; and Tier 3: 75 to 98 percent efficient), top Tier 3 nozzles can also more reliably direct the most force with less water, at lower pressure, to remove debris. The most efficient Tier 3 nozzles, such as KEG’s Torpedo and OMG models, are designed with fluid mechanics engineering on par with the aerodynamics of race cars.

After exiting the jetter hose, water travels into the body of the nozzle before moving through smooth, curved channels. This design enables the water to maintain its power and speed before entering the nozzle’s replaceable titanium ceramic inserts, which help to straighten the water stream. The water is further funneled to enable an even tighter water pattern to emerge.

The power and reliability of a superior Tier 3 nozzle can help operators clean more line, more effectively, before the sewer truck crew needs to stop work and drive to a hydrant to refill the water tank before resuming work.

IDENTIFYING OBSTRUCTIONS

Regulators can hold municipalities accountable for preventing SSOs. In addition, proper cleaning and maintenance must be accomplished. For these reasons, waiting for a separate crew with a CCTV truck to access pipe conditions can be insufficient. Out of sight, obstructions will develop into blockages that trigger SSOs when the camera crew cannot assess all the line on a regular basis.

To enable timely sewer line inspection when a CCTV truck crew is unavailable, some manufacturers have developed camera nozzles that capture video while cleaning. As an example, KEG’s KleenSight camera-nozzle system provides operators with the ability to clean sewer and storm lines while recording upright www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

Municipalities can cost effectively reduce sanitary sewer overflows to virtually zero with the right equipment and cleaning habits.

high-definition video. The device has a self-leveling camera head and provides its own illumination.

Only a jetter hose connection is required. The camera captures the video in memory and the files are automatically date- and time-stamped for later downloading by Wi-Fi to mobile devices or PCs for viewing. Using a camera-nozzle during routine cleaning can capture video that shows if there are roots in a pipe that should be removed before they become a problem.

BE PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE

When SSOs occur and municipalities are out of compliance, it can be difficult to do more than react. However, proactively maintaining sewer line with the most effective tools and tactics is vital to prevent SSOs and quickly resolve them if they occur. For this reason, there are customized training programs for municipalities that specifically target the challenge of SSOs. With the goal of eliminating SSOs, training programs that correct common cleaning errors, such as excessive operaREMOVING OBSTRUCTIONS tor speed going up the sewer line, which When a serious blockage occurs, it ends up wasting water, labour, and usually results in an SSO, and a chain cut- time when multiple passes are required. ter is used to resolve the situation. Chain Proper line assessment and cleaning cutter nozzles that utilize water pres- speed should be taught, which allows sure are more efficient and can deliver operators to adjust to circumstances as the required torque to cut through thick needed while minimizing water use. masses. The high-pressure water enters When operators complete training, the chain cutter nozzle chamber and is most will understand how to chop up directed to spin the cutting chains at the debris and let the flow of water work high velocity. The chain cutter can then like a conveyor belt, carrying the debris eliminate heavy root blockages as well as out. They will be trained to go from scale, rust, mineral deposits, hardened manhole to manhole and clean in a single pass. This is important, since it takes grease, and accumulated debris.

When roots and debris from the lines a fraction of the time and resources to are removed, it becomes easy for future make one pass versus making several debris to pass through on its own. This passes to remove the same material. reduces the problem of future backups and sanitary sewer overflows.

Del Williams works with KEG Technologies. For more information: visit www.kegtechnologies.net

December 2023 | 23

SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

New and seasoned Indigenous water operators recognized for their achievements

By David Nesseth

A

t the same time as First Nations communities are preparing to welcome a new cohort of water treatment plant operators freshly trained in Northern Ontario, recently a national award provided a glimpse from the other end of the lens into the water career milestones of seasoned Indigenous operators.

Those experienced operators are a group of 30 nominees for the 2023 National First Nations Water Leadership Award, which is designed to honour some of the most innovative, inspirational, knowledgeable and collaborative water operators serving First Nations across Canada.

Warren Brown, manager of Lytton First Nation’s operations and maintenance department, won the 2023 National First Nations Water Leadership Award from Indigenous Services Canada, in recognition of his 21-year career achievements.

Speaking at the 14th annual BC and Yukon Territory Water and Wastewater Operational Excellence Conference held in Vancouver, Brown shared his journey in the water sector.

Life took a different turn for him on June 29, 2021, when the area set a Canadian heat record of 49.6°C. That day, Brown suddenly became more of a firefighter than an operator, as a blaze had broken out and burned about a hectare of land before he got it under control along with the BC Wildfire Service.

Equipped with a truck carrying a 1,050 litre water tank connected to a 50-mm pump, Brown protected three groundwater systems, four surface water systems and five points of entry for filtration and treatment systems from burning to the ground.

The next day, fires were ravaging the town of Lytton B.C. near the reserve. “I 24 | December 2023

Warren Brown won the 2023 National First Nations Water Leadership Award.

Credit: BiPure Water

watched the forestry helicopters flying overhead dumping water on parts of downtown. Embers landed on my shirt, burning me. Explosions were going off in buildings and in the distance and parked cars were burning,” recalls Brown.

In response, he drove his truck into town and was on-site to help pump water into the fires. When he tried to return later with a second load of water, the road into town was blocked.

“We were afraid that if the fire jumped the river from the town, it had the potential to burn its way to the reserves fast,” says Brown. In a flash, his role would shift again, this time to spreading the word for evacuation.

The next morning, Brown and his colleagues used their trucks to help fill water bladders for the wildfire crews, before they finally made it home to their families, who had been unable to contact them.

After a day at home, Brown’s team started working on ways to get water moving through their systems without power.

Three days later, they managed to get generators hooked up to the water system.

“The more a water operator communicates with their community about how things are operating and responds quickly to any quality concerns, the more

trust there will be within the community towards the operator,” said Brown upon receiving his award. “And conservation of water is needed to ensure it is safe from industry and natural disasters.”

Brown, who received his diploma in water treatment technology at Thompson Rivers University in 2011, says he continues to lead conversations about best practices for water services in the village, where he has led work to lift six long-term drinking water advisories.

There are 56 reserves on the First Nation land, and in 2018, two communities lifted boil-water advisories that had been in place for a generation. During significant fires each of the last three years, Brown’s water systems were placed on boil advisories each time until his team was able to clean reservoirs, flush watermains, and begin water sampling.

When it comes to advice for the next generation of water operators, Brown says: “Know your water systems. What can you do to get water moving if a natural disaster took place?”

For the dozens of other seasoned operators nominated for the First Nations Water Leadership Award in 2023, many were recognized for their desire to train and lead the next generation through avenues, such as the Circuit Rider Training Program. One such nominee was Ian Fortin of Ontario’s Chapleau Cree First Nation, where he began as a water operator some 28 years ago.

Fortin would go on to become a Circuit Rider Trainer for the Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation, and eventually become chairperson of the Aboriginal Water and Wastewater Association of Ontario.

“As a trusted trainer and mentor, he became a familiar face as he travelled continued overleaf…

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

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SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Having more local people trained as water operators means we can do more preventative maintenance and daily tasks, and not just react to issues.

to First Nations communities across the province, helping others, sharing his knowledge, and promoting best practices to help them overcome challenges in operating water systems effectively and efficiently,” stated one of Fortin’s three nominations.

Sadly, Fortin passed away in December 2022. To honour his memory, the family started the Ian Fortin Memorial Scholarship fund for students attending Chapleau High School, who intend to pursue a career in the water sector.

Following the lead of these award nominees is a group of eleven graduates who have completed fifteen months of training near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, through the Water First Education & Training Inc. program.

One of those graduates setting off on a new career in the water sector is program valedictorian Nigel Debassige of Ontario’s Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation. Even as he embarks on his journey, he’s aware that others may be watching him, deciding their own path.

“When you leave here today, celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but look forward with an eye towards how you too can be that inspiration to others,” said Debassige, as he addressed his graduating class.

Debassige earned 1,800 hours of on-the-job experience in water treatment plants as part of the water operator in training (OIT) certification process. After participating in a water ceremony, the interns learned about watersheds, water treatment processes, as well as math and chemistry.

“Our time and weeks of training together will always have a spot in my heart,” he continued in his valedictorian speech.

“On graduation day, too, we look outside for inspiration to drive us forwards, but I see that inspiration right here among us.”

Following graduation, the interns will join the Water First Alumni Network to stay engaged, build local networks and access opportunities for ongoing professional development and peer support.

Water First has collaborated with 37 First Nations communities through the Drinking Water Internship.

To date, 46 interns have graduated from the program, funded through the North Shore Tribal Council Member First Nations employment and training program, together with the support of Water First’s donors. A fifth internship program is underway in Northern Ontario with Ogemawahj Tribal Council, and another one will soon be launched for the first time in Manitoba.

“The training and certifications open doors to so many opportunities,” said Laura Mallinson, a previous internship graduate from Nipissing First Nation.

“In the community, having more local people trained as water operators means we can do more preventative maintenance and daily tasks, and not just react to issues. There are more trained people who can help keep the water flowing."

David Nesseth is with ES&E Magazine.

Email: david@esemag.com

26 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Four important reasons to choose CO₂ to reduce drinking water pH

By Jeanne Hendrickson

T

he pH level of water plays a significant role in every stage of a municipal water treatment system, from disinfection to filtration, to corrosion control. As such, proper management is essential for optimizing the performance of treatment processes. Maintaining optimal pH levels is crucial in drinking water treatment to ensure the safety and quality of the water supply.

Traditionally, liquid acids such as sulfuric acid and muriatic acid have been employed to lower pH levels. However, these chemicals pose a health and safety risk. Their caustic and flammable properties require operators to wear personal protecLiquid acids use a dosing pump connected to a source contive equipment (PPE) while handling them, and they must be tainer and a 4-20mA signal, the latter of which helps control how carefully stored in proper conditions. much acid is administered to the system. Hooking up and swapMany water treatment plants (WTPs) are increasingly turn- ping out acid containers is theoretically simple, but requires opering to carbon dioxide (CO2) dosing to manage pH levels. It ators to follow explicit safety procedures and wear the proper PPE. is easier to use, more environmentally friendly, and can have In addition, liquid acids require additional time for comlong-term cost benefits. continued overleaf…

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December 2023 | 27

SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Blue-White’s CO2 feed system for pH control comes complete with a flow meter, illuminated on/off switch, stainless steel solenoid valve, and easy push connectors.

instability and corrosive conditions in water distribution systems that can damage pipes, fittings and other infrastructure components. This can potentially introduce harmful contaminants to the water.

CO2 dosing provides a more controlled and gradual pH reduction. CO2 is self-buffering, forming carbonic acid (H2CO3) when dissolved in water. This carbonic acid can dissociate into hydrogen ions (H+) and bicarbonate ions (HCO3-).

The reversible equilibrium reaction between carbonic acid and bicarbonate ions helps maintain the pH of the solution, usually keeping it just above 6. Thus, it is difficult to over-dose the water. This reduces the risk of corrosion, minimizing the risk of water quality deterioration due to the release of metals or other pipe-related contaminants.

Of course, this also means that CO2 may not be an ideal solution for treating highly alkaline water. However, for the majority of water systems it does represent an advantage.

plete mixing, increasing the treatment duration, which could potentially lead to an over-dosing situation.

By contrast, CO2 is stored in pressurized tanks with a regulator and diffuser. When the pH rises above a set point, a solenoid ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLINESS valve opens to allow more CO2 to enter and lower the pH. CO2 Another advantage of using CO2 for pH reduction is its dissolves almost instantly and distributes evenly throughout the superior environmental profile. Liquid acids pose potential water, resulting in faster, more efficient and precise pH control. risks to human health and the environment. The storage, handling, and transport of concentrated liquid acids require carePH STABILITY AND REDUCED CORROSION ful precautions to prevent accidents or spills that can result in Liquid acids tend to lower pH abruptly, leading to potential soil and water contamination or injury to personnel.

In contrast, CO2 is a naturally occurring gas found in the atmosphere, and its use does not introduce additional chemicals or hazardous substances into the water supply. CO2 gas can be sourced from various industrial processes, such as power plants or fermentation, offering an opportunity for sustainable utilization of a byproduct.

CO2 also reduces the potential environmental impact associated with liquid acids. The self-buffering property ensures that CO2-dosed water will cause minimal harm to plant and animal life in the event of a water main break or a system flush.

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CO2 dosing offers cost advantages over liquid acids in multiple ways. While the equipment has a higher upfront price tag, CO2 is naturally occurring and abundant, making it cheaper to produce than most acids. In addition, CO2 dosing is relatively simple and the tanks can be safely stored. This reduces costs associated with safety and other training, as well as PPE investment. Furthermore, the reduced corrosion potential associated with CO2 dosing extends the lifespan of distribution system components, saving on maintenance and replacement expenses in the long run.

While liquid acids like sulfuric acid and muriatic acid have been used for pH reduction for years, the associated health and safety risks are making CO2 dosing increasingly desirable.

In addition, the use of it better aligns with many WTP’s sustainability goals, while also offering numerous potential longterm cost benefits.

Jeanne Hendrickson is with Blue-White. Email jeanne@bwadvertising.com, or visit www.blue-white.com Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

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SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Utilities Kingston video shows worker clearing grease, fat in sewer to raise disposal awareness

By ES&E Staff

recognize September 18 to 22 as Sewer Safety Week.

If a blockage is within a residential new awareness campaign from home, the coalition encourages peoUtilities Kingston includes a ple to call a licensed plumber to safely YouTube video showing just remove it. But, if the blockage is outside how challenging it can be for the walls of the home, the coalition says workers to clear out hardened fats, oils to stop and consider the risk of a sewer and grease, known as FOG, that can crecross bore, when underground natural ate sewage blockages or even fatbergs. gas pipes may have been unintentionally Cooking oil, butter and margarine, Screengrab. Credit: Utilities Kingston, YouTube installed through sewer pipes. meat fats, salad dressings, sauces and “Although this is rare, the pipes can gravies are all types of fats, oils and co-exist safely and go undetected until grease, and Utilities Kingston is working container on hand could be used. the sewer pipe is blocked and needs to hard to remind Kingston residents and While Kingston operators are not fac- be cleared,” states Utilities Kingston in businesses that someone has to climb ing any recent spikes in fatbergs, the util- an announcement. Mechanical plumbdown into a confined space to clear ity says it is always looking for ways to ing tools could easily damage natural blockages that may be created by FOG. remind residents about proper disposal gas pipes and lead to a dangerous natu“Residents and restaurant operators practices. The video of the worker knee- ral gas leak, the groups warn. may not be aware of the problem with deep in murky wastewater is intended to If a blockage is suspected outside the pouring cooking grease down the sink,” bring home the very real consequences home, owners can call Ontario One Call, which will notify the gas companies and says Julie Runions, manager of water and of dumping FOG down the drain. wastewater treatment, in a media stateUtilities Kingston supported another result in a free sewer safety inspection. ment. Utilities Kingston provides free awareness campaign recently, as it joined FOG cups that can be filled with fats and forces with the Technical Standards and For more information, email: oils, stored away until full, then tossed in Safety Authority, Kitchener Utilities, editor@esemag.com the green bin. Although any compostable Ontario One Call, and Enbridge Gas to

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30 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Full operations may not resume at Wheatley’s WTP for one year following a generator fire

By ES&E Staff

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n early investigation into the severe fire damage at the Wheatley Water Treatment Plant, which serves some 8,500 residents, estimated that it could take a full year before the southwestern Ontario facility can return to normal operations. A key factor in this delay is the long lead time for replacement equipment.

The fire occurred on September 13 and damaged specialized mechanical and electrical systems within the plant. It originated from the water plant’s generator, which was undergoing regular maintenance and testing, local officials said.

Damage from the fire was significant enough to take the The Wheatley Water Treatment Plant. Screen capture credit: Google Maps plant out of service, but nobody was injured. The communities of Wheatley and Tilbury in Chatham-Kent had been under a boil water advisory until October 4, but were provided access For more information, email: editor@esemag.com to a bottled water distribution program organized by the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

The Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and CK Public Health conducted several rounds of testing at the water treatment plant to gauge sufficient pressure, adequate chlorine levels, and ensure that the water was completely free of bacteriological contamination. When those conditions were met, and officials were confident in the repeatability of water testing results, the boil water advisory was lifted.

“Once we stabilize the water supply, which we are working to do now, we will be able to test the water with accurate and repeatable results,” said Tim Sunderland, PUC general manager, in a statement just prior to lifting the boil water advisory.

Local officials are still advocating for water conservation, which means avoiding car washing, filling of hot tubs, and all other non-essential uses of the water supply.

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December 2023 | 31

SPECIAL FOCUS: OPERATORS’ FORUM

Canada considers lower iron limit to reduce water taste, colour complaints

By ES&E staff

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new guideline technical document from Health Canada proposes to slightly lower the aesthetic objective level of iron in drinking water to minimize discoloration, complaints of bitter or metallic taste, and the presence of manganese.

Canada formed the initial iron guideline in 1978 at ≤ 0.3 mg/L, and is now proposing to lower it to ≤ 0.1 mg/L. Health Canada states that when the iron concentration is 0.3 mg/L, consumers may notice the flavour of ferrous iron and see rust and iron staining.

“This shows that a concentration of 0.3 mg/L is not low enough to minimize complaints about water colour and taste complaints or to improve consumer confidence in drinking water quality,” states Health Canada’s guideline technical document.

The new aesthetic objective proposal would also minimize excessive deposit buildup in the distribution system. The technical document states that most well-operated and optimized treatment plants can achieve iron concentrations of 0.1 mg/L or less in the treated water, and this generally improves the removal of manganese. The level can be measurable by available analytical methods and achievable by commonly available technologies.

Iron can be lowered through aeration, chemical oxidation followed by filtration, coagulation, adsorption, membrane filtration, or coagulation followed by ultrafiltration. The most widely used technology that is effective for decreasing iron concentrations in drinking water is based on directly oxidizing dissolved Fe(II) to form Fe(III) particles.

“The particles are then removed by a physical process, such as clarification and granular media filtration or low-pressure membrane filtration,” states Health Canada.

32 | December 2023

From an aesthetic perspective, ferric iron present at high levels can be responsible for the reddish-brown colour of water.

While there is no health-related guideline for iron, oral exposure to very high levels may cause adverse health effects, with gastrointestinal distress being the most sensitive endpoint, notes the technical document.

“Considering that iron levels can vary significantly in source water, within treatment plants, and especially in distribution systems, monitoring programs should be system-specific to enable utilities to have a good understanding of iron levels from source to tap,” Health Canada states.

The main sources of iron exposure for the Canadian general population are food and, to a lesser extent, drinking water.

From an aesthetic perspective, ferric iron present at high levels can be responsible for the reddish-brown colour of water, according to the technical document. Some staining of plumbing fixtures and laundry may occur at iron con-

centrations above 0.05 ppm.

This regulatory news article on iron is intended to be an overview of the report, legislation or proposal, and not a replacement for the actual guidance from the government. For the comprehensive data and all relevant information, please visit Health Canada’s website.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

CLIMATE CHANGE

FCM’s Green Municipal Fund paved way for nearly 1,500 projects since 2000

By ES&E staff

O

ver the course of more than two decades, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Green Municipal Fund has enabled the completion of nearly 1,500 projects aimed at cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the face of climate change, according to a new annual report.

From improving sustainability in key sectors such as energy, transportation, waste, water and land use, to wide-ranging energy retrofits of municipal buildings, the Green Municipal Fund (GMF) has helped avoid 2.87 million tonnes of GHG emissions since 2000, and contributed $1.2 billion to the Canada’s GDP,

says the report.

In November 2022, the federal government invested $530 million in the GMF through the Climate Adaptation Action Plan to support, accelerate and scale up community-based climate adaptation initiatives.

Some of the GMF’s key initiatives are community efficiency financing; low carbon cities Canada; community buildings retrofit; partners for climate protection; municipal net-zero action research partnership; and the circular cities and regions initiative.

FCM, considered a national voice of municipal governments, says it is at the beginning of a new Three-Year Plan for 2023 to 2026. There will be a renewed focus for more municipal climate change mitigation and adaptation plans, as well

as further net-zero energy solutions.

Since 2000, the GMF has completed 1,447 projects across Canada. A provincial breakdown reveals 487 projects completed in Ontario; 270 projects completed in Quebec; 265 projects completed in British Columbia; 161 projects completed in Atlantic Canada; 128 projects in Alberta; 58 projects in Manitoba; 53 projects in Saskatchewan; and 25 projects in the Territories.

Also, since 2000, the GMF has completed 41 initiatives with specific social impact targets, such as new libraries, cultural centres, cyclist and pedestrian pathways, as well as pools, rinks and recreation centres.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

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December 2023 | 33

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

What is a consultant’s role in helping clients adopt new technologies and managing change?

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By Judy Yu

s engineering consultants, we rarely discuss our role in advising and assisting clients with adopting new technologies and managing change—even though they trust us to deliver infrastructure projects, and seek our assistance in planning, selecting, implementing, and testing technology solutions.

Our role in technology, information management, and change management can range from technical to operations improvements, depending on the client’s organizational readiness and capacity. The extent of our responsibilities varies based on the sector and clients. We support change management efforts by identifying future roles and responsibilities for managing the new technology

and data, or by developing user training programs.

Working on infrastructure engineering projects, we mitigate the risk of failure through design measures, such as redundancy and safety factors. We carefully choose materials and equipment that are tested and proven, and we follow a systematic approach from concept to design, leveraging industry standards and our experience to meet short- and long-term client needs.

We enhance the value we provide by incorporating adaptability into our designs. This ensures that the assets we create can accommodate changes in the operating environment. There is the same expected level of care and consideration for technology selection, adoption and advancement. By effectively mitigating risks and designing with the future in mind, we deliver solutions that address our clients’ needs in a complex and rapidly evolving landscape.

What does it mean to take a systematic and supportive approach to these

projects? A systematic approach refers to a structured and methodical way of approaching a task, problem, or process.

It involves following a predefined set of steps or a logical sequence to ensure consistency, efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the desired outcome.

Clearly defining this approach helps to “demystify” and guide the client through the entire decision-making process. In a systematic approach, each step builds upon the previous one and contributes to the overall objective. The process typically involves the following key activities: analysis and planning; design and development; implementation and execution; evaluation and feedback; and continuous improvement.

ANALYSIS AND PLANNING

This stage involves gathering information, analyzing the situation or problem, and defining the goals and objectives. We collaborate with the client and stakeholders to understand the context, identify constraints, and develop a comprehen-

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34 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

sive plan to guide the subsequent steps.

On technology projects, this can take the form of a needs assessment, concept of operations, analysis of business process and workflows, technology landscape and systems architecture, and determination of the key drivers of success, and potentially, new roles and responsibilities.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

In this phase, documents such as the “needs assessment” are translated into a design or solution with clearly defined specifications, technical and/or performance based. This phase may involve creating pilot projects, a test bed to conduct experiments or developing models to help visualize impacts (e.g., responsive or adaptive signal control along a transportation corridor with failing levels of service).

This phase aims to ensure that the solution is well-designed, feasible, affordable, and aligned with the desired outcome.

Through several iterations, the procurement strategy becomes clearer based on

all the information available. Associated Engineering may support or be directly responsible for the request for proposal (RFP) package, including system specifications, contract terms and conditions, and definition of key milestones and deliverables for the technology supplier.

Often, we develop scoring criteria on behalf of our clients to balance price, technology functionality, and performance history that aligns with project objectives and offers the best value.

While it is important to establish a baseline and acknowledge that it does not change quickly, clients can and do grow and evolve during the project as they become more aware of challenges and opportunities. This information may shift the outcomes of the design and development activities, which we must align with a client’s short, medium and long-term needs before proceeding into procurement.

IMPLEMENTATION AND EXECUTION

Once the client awards the contract to the successful technology supplier/vendor, we collaborate with the vendor and our client to complete detailed design, including configuration, system interfaces, integrations, and data management.

When the client approves the detailed design, we move into the implementation phase and technology testing conducted in the supplier/vendor’s facilities and include the client’s staff at different levels.

Testing involves a stress test of the technology, including hardware, software, and IT infrastructure. Our role includes ensuring technology meets design criteria as well as documenting testing.

Then, we develop a plan to “go live” and roll back to current operations, if needed. We run a “burn-in” period that provides a 30-to-60-day period of continuous operations in a “live” environment. This step is often underestimated for the level of coordination required continued overleaf…

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SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

between different teams or departments and the allocation of appropriate resources to ensure smooth execution. We participate in resourcing discussions and assist with understanding what risks may materialize and why specific resources are needed for risk mitigation.

An iterative approach allows for ongoing learning and adaptation. This ensures that even as the technology functionality becomes more sophisticated over time and embedded into the client’s organization, it still enables sound decisions based on where the technology is and where it needs to improve to align with the client’s future expectations.

EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK Consequently, this approach may involve the creation of Throughout the testing process, it is crucial to monitor feed- multi-year improvement roadmaps to gradually introduce back from client staff, and inform the client about concerns, new functionality or automation at a reasonable pace. In some such as technical, functional, or vendor service issues. In addi- of our projects, we have fostered this forward-looking pertion, testing outcomes for each function should be tracked for spective, earning the trust of our clients by understanding the deficiencies. direction of the industry and effectively addressing the presDeficiencies critical to the application’s function (from the sures and expectations associated with public service delivery client’s perspective) must be resolved and retested until speci- through technology. fications are fully met; minor deficiencies can be resolved prior to final acceptance. This continuous evaluation phase helps SUPPORTIVE APPROACH to ensure that the systematic approach remains on track and Alongside a systematic approach, we provide support to delivers the desired outcomes. help our clients with change management. Our supportive approach includes three key components: communication, CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT training, and stakeholder engagement.

A critical element of a systematic approach is a commitCommunication involves support to manage expectations ment to continuous improvement. This may be through a and open the channels of feedback from those who will own framework that incorporates ongoing lessons learned to refine and manage the technology. The communication strategy business processes, optimize efficiency, reduce downtime, and should identify regular updates on progress, share key sucimprove future outcomes. cess factors, and document how concerns or issues will be addressed. Effective communication helps to build trust and confidence among stakeholders and ensures that everyone is aligned and working toward the same goals.

Training is essential to ensure that client staff have the skills APPOINTMENT NOTICE and knowledge to use new technology effectively. Technical Environmental Science & Engineering Publications training must cover the features and functionality of the techInc. is pleased to welcome David Nesseth to its nology, and how it changes business processes, staff roles, and editorial team as Contributing Editor for ES&E responsibilities.

Magazine and the CANECT Connections Newsletter.

Effective stakeholder engagement is vital to ensure a com“For several years, David has been writing articles prehensive and holistic perspective on technology selection and covering association events for our print and and adoption. It is crucial to engage stakeholders at the right digital platforms on a freelance basis. As part of our levels, frequencies, and using suitable methods to gather releongoing commitment to providing high-quality vant input and ensure their ongoing support. Regular commuCanadian content to our readers for the past 35 years, nication and collaboration with stakeholders help foster a sense we are excited to expand his role with us,” says ES&E of ownership and buy-in, promoting a smoother transition.

Magazine’s Editor and Publisher Steve Davey.

By using appropriate methods, such as surveys, interviews, David has written about the environment since workshops, or focus groups, Associated Engineering encour2012. As a journalist based in Ottawa and Toronto, ages stakeholders to provide valuable input that aligns with his work has appeared in daily newspapers and their needs and expectations. magazines with a focus on Integral to a supportive approach is understanding the orgalegislation, cleantech, and nization’s culture and how it can impact the success or failure waste management. of organizational change efforts, in particular any resistance to change. We collaborate with our clients, to identify shifts David Nesseth can be reached at david@esemag.com in shared beliefs, values, norms, behaviours and attitudes that shape the way people within an organization think and act.

30-220 Industrial Pkwy S Aurora, ON L4G 3V6

36 | December 2023

Judy Yu, P.Eng., PMP, is with Associated Engineering.

Email: yuj@ae.ca

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

When a design team makes errors, or does not pay attention to details, operations staff often bear the burden ject. He states at the start of it that: accompanying operational burden.

“Some blunders are senseless, and their Sadly, only three textbooks in my occurrence is perhaps caused by an library discuss design errors and how to oversight or omission while details of prevent them. To be clear, we are prone drawings are being worked out. Others to make mistakes, but that does not

By Pat Coleman may happen because a designer simply mean we are poor engineers. However, forgot to include some items in design if we allow these mistakes to impact the calculations, made a poor judgement design because we are afraid to admit to hen he was a toddler, my them or we fail to follow quality assuror assumption, or perhaps overlooked wife taught my son a song ance procedures, allowing the errors to the implications of the design criteria. that they sang together at damage the built product, then, yes, we Many other poor design provisions crosswalks: “Red means are poor engineers. may not be errors in the real sense but stop, green means go, and yellow means may be least desirable from the point In his 1999 textbook, Wastewater Treatpay attention.” The greatest risk to a ment Plants: Planning, Design and Operof view of plant construction and rouyoung pedestrian is during the transi- ation, Syed Qasim of the University of tine maintenance.”

Waste Water products plus PERIPRO 4.5 x sub4.875 Holistic.pdf 1 1/19/2023 3:40:41 PMcontinued overleaf… tion when vehicles stop for a red light Texas, dedicated one chapter to the and start for a green light.

Similarly, the greatest risk to a design occurs when “we fail to pay attention” while developing a design. Yaldah Azimi’s excellent presentation at the Water Environment Association of Ontario’s (WEAO) 2023 conference entitled “Typical Design-Operation Disconnects Leading to Ammonia Non-Compliance Issues at Sewage Treatment Facilities” really made me think.

The aim of a design team is to build a reliable, safe-to-operate and maintain facility within the owner’s budget. A ® reliable facility: • Includes sufficient redundancy so that the facility can operate when equipment or a process fails, or to allow for units to be offline for regular maintenance; • Is resilient, recovering quickly from abnormal conditions; • Is robust, withstanding adverse conditions; • Never puts the safety or health of staff at risk; • Meets all regulatory requirements.

If the design team is off target, slightly or entirely, the burden of not paying attention falls on others. For example, a common pitfall is selecting an attractive capital cost solution, while ignoring the

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• Not fact-checking salespeople or consultant conference presentations. Check claims – call the reference list. Denny Parker warned us in his 2011 paper on the Introduction of New Process Technology into the Wastewater Treatment Sector that we can be biased against what we know while being generous to what we do not.

• A team did not challenge a team member because of their personality. Moran called that “running from the tiger.”

• Designing to a different risk profile: A team can become comfortable with risk to the point they cease to recognize the threat that it poses. The disconnection between the consequence and the appreciation of its magnitude widens when we do not operate what we design. The team needs to remember that regulators and clients who deal with the consequence of a failure view “working most of the time as not working at all.”

Trevor Kletz and Paul Amyotte take a different approach in their 2010 textbook, Process Plants: A Handbook for Inherently Safer Design. They extracted design principles from Kletz’s extensive work analyzing chemical plant accidents and process failures. Kletz argued throughout his career that the worst design errors we can make result in facilities that are difficult to operate and maintain and place staff at risk: “People say accidents are due to human error, which is like saying falls are due to gravity.” We need a comparable list of design principles for the water industry.

We can learn two principles from Kletz and Amyotte’s approach: • The first is that design is iterative, and we cannot tire of the work until the design “hits the mark.” If we cannot meet the mark within budget, spend more. Trying to explain our flawed design after the fact to a client, an injured operator, an upset regulator, or a lawyer is painful.

• The second is that the team should endeavour to make a system inherently safe. If that is not possible, then use passive controls before relying on active controls. Only poor designers shift the safety burden unnecessarily onto operating staff.

From my experience since returning to Canada in 2005, I can add a few more to the list: • Mistaking quality control for quality assurance: A person checking a design expects to check a “good” design. A verifier does not have the budget or time to fix a design. Quality control checks if quality is maintained by the quality assurance practices already in place.

• Fragmentation of the design without oversight: Discipline leads need to keep oversight over the whole design to ensure the facility will work when built. Many construction and operational issues occur at the interfaces between processes and buildings.

• Sizing equipment without accounting for return flows: This is a common error. The team must build a mass balance and process flow diagram before providing sizing data to vendors to avoid undersizing equipment.

• Sizing equipment for the rated capacity, ignoring the flows at start-up: Oversized equipment cannot be adequately utilized or controlled.

• Checking all information provided to the team before it

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Here are some of the issues he listed: • Not enough workspace left around a piece of equipment to allow for servicing or lifting.

• Valves were provided in lines without sufficient clearance for handwheels or for operators to reach them.

• Ceiling hooks not cast into place above equipment that required them for lifting.

• Inadequate floor drains.

• Changes made in elevation of tanks or weirs without checking the hydraulic profile.

Seán Moran (www.expertise-limited.co.uk) has a similar chapter in his 2018 textbook, An Applied Guide to Water and Effluent Treatment Design. The chapter, Classic Mistakes in Water and Effluent Treatment Plant Design and Operation, lists observations from his experience as an expert witness. Below are a few he mentioned: • Bad decisions often occurred because the team deferred to the “Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HIPPO)”. He warned that managers are often less risk-averse than experienced engineers, but carry more weight in decision-making because of their position.

• Disconnects occur in designs often because of the diminishment of the role of the lead process engineer.

• “Newbies” complete the design without oversight. In the “race to the bottom”, the role of senior engineers shifted from working with staff to checking the design at the end.

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

If the design team is off target, slightly or entirely, the burden of not paying attention falls on others. For example, a common pitfall is selecting an attractive capital cost solution, while ignoring the accompanying operational burden. is entered into intelligent or 3D CAD products: One fundamental premise of quality management is that all information provided to the team is checked and cataloged before it is used. The rule should be “the more complex a design tool, the stricter the control over what is put into it.”

• Failing to quantify safety and energy impacts of covering processes: The worst case I encountered was an underground plant where staff could not be in the headworks area for longer than 15 minutes because of the risk of chest infections.

Why do these errors creep into a design? What can go wrong on a team? How does that impact what a team produces?

I have two pictures of projects I worked on in my office at home. One was my all-time favourite job, and the other made my hair grey and cost me many sleepless nights. One had a highly functioning team. The other did not. Many staff, like me, were on both teams. What went wrong?

To rephrase Tolstoy, “Happy teams are all alike; every unhappy team is unhappy in its own way.” Therefore, it is easier to explain why a team works than why it does not.

One place to start is to use Patrick Lencioni’s five dysfunctions of a team: lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results. I would add a sixth, which is missing competencies. A team may be able to function and make decisions but be unable to make wise decisions because they lack experience or knowledge in a particular area, or with a specific client.

Both the composition and functionality of a team impact decision-making. After the Bay of Pigs disaster, U.S. President John F. Kennedy met with former President Dwight Eisenhower. Kennedy wanted Eisenhower to comment on the failed plan. Eisenhower wanted to know how decisions were made to create the plan. Eisenhower understood a failed plan is the product of poor decision-making.

Decision-making is fraught with risks, including groupthink, misunderstanding of risk, disconnects, not understanding constraints, ignoring operation and maintenance considerations, inability to decide, and low standards caused by team fatigue.

Therefore, design errors infect the design because of team dysfunction, wrong team members, and faults in the decision-making process. Errors and omissions can slip into a design at any stage, including when setting constraints at the start, during schematic and spatial design, detailed design, and construction/commissioning.

A wastewater facility is a factory with hazards. Too often, we focus on the “hazards” and forget the “factory” part. Staff go to work to maintain and operate the facility, which must function every day to meet compliance. www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

Therefore, when designers fail to pay attention, they create a problem for someone else. It may be catastrophic, causing an operator to go on long-term disability due to workplace injury causing lower back pain or respiratory issues. It also may be the human cost of chronic stress caused by trying to keep a poorly designed facility in compliance.

Staff want to be able to manage their facility, but regulators only want to see reports that confirm the facility meets its objectives, and the owner only wants to call designers back when they need more work done.

These are good reasons to “pay attention”, like my toddler learned from his mother at the crosswalk.

Pat Coleman, P.Eng., is with Stantec. Email: pat.coleman@stantec.com. References are available upon request.

December 2023 | 39

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

Why now is the time to ensure the future success of the environment sector overarching environmental goals. And the actions need to be taken now as governments set goals for a cleaner, greener future.

T

By Julia Steele

he next 10 years represent a critical time for Canada’s earth and environment sector. Climate impacts are getting worse, and our industry is scrambling to help reduce carbon emissions, save sensitive ecosystems, restore biodiversity, and plan future development that is climate resilient.

At the same time, our industry needs more professionals who have the necessary skills and training to address the challenges we face. However, as the need grows stronger, the number of skilled workers has not kept pace. Corporations, consulting companies, institutions, and governments are increasingly competing for earth and environmental professionals from an already-thinned talent pool.

The actions we take as an industry, and the support, training, and leadership we provide, could ultimately determine how successful we are at achieving society’s

CRITICALITY OF THE SECTOR

Climate change continues to cause severe storms, flooding, wildfires, droughts, heat waves, permafrost thaw, and other unwanted impacts in Canada in 2023.

Much of Canada’s current infrastructure will not meet the increased demands of both a growing population and climate change impacts, and will require rehabilitation, replacement, or upgrading in a way that builds in climate resilience.

Material scarcity, infrastructure longevity, and carbon cycle impacts need to be considered in design, alongside community and environmental impacts.

There is also a need to significantly ramp up efforts to extract the required critical minerals to support green energy technologies. S&P Global estimates the demand for copper to double by 2035. In the mining sector, the increased demand for critical minerals is paralleled by increasing standards of industry best practice.

This is not only with respect to envi-

ronmental impacts and water stewardship, but also for engagement with project-affected people, management and governance during operations, and public disclosure. All of these will require an increasing number of new earth and environmental professionals.

Lastly, in the coming years we expect to see an increase in population migration and movement of peoples displaced by climate change impacts, with many likely coming to Canada. An increasing population in Canada needs to be considered in planning for our future.

The significance of these challenges cannot be understated. Climate change is, and will continue to be, a huge challenge, and the earth and environment industry is critically needed to adapt to and mitigate its impacts.

THE PERSONNEL CHALLENGE

Right now, we already find ourselves struggling to meet the demands of earth and environmental work in Canada. In fact, defining the demands is additional work in itself as government and industry work together to update standards and laws.

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Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

As various industry sectors and governments begin to grapple with how climate change is affecting them, many are trying to build in-house expertise, and look to hire from the already-limited groups of professionals working in engineering and consulting firms.

Those firms are simultaneously widening the type of professionals they are hiring and asking more of their existing professionals to address the interplay of engineering design, environmental impact, and social impact, including more community engagement and consultation.

The increasing workload on existing professionals is causing burnout and resulting in some employees leaving the industry.

The work in the earth and environment sector is becoming increasingly complex, needs an expanding skillset, and the amount of work is increasing. While enrolment in earth and environmental engineering and sciences is increasing, it’s not increasing at a rate that allows us to fill the gaps in the industry. Some sectors, such as mining, have the additional challenge of needing to overcome reputational issues to attract the number of professionals needed to deliver the green transition.

CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE

The industry faces challenges that can be overcome, and those of us who are already in the industry have a big part to play in our future success.

We need to develop a culture of continuous learning in the earth and environment sector. A college or university degree is just the start of the learning journey. Conferences, webinars, and workshops can provide information on updated practices, standards, strategies, and innovations that can help create the evolving solutions that our clients and communities need.

When we have that knowledge, we need to commit to sharing it with the industry. We may work for different companies, but there is only one Earth, one Canada, and we are all working together toward the common goal of making it livable for generations to come.

It is a necessity to work in diverse problem-solving groups that are cross-disciplinary, cross-generational, and cross-cultural. The silos and strict hierarchies must, and will, become a thing of the past. By

www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

breaking down these barriers, we foster the best conditions to innovate while also being able to address the complex and interconnected problems created by climate change.

Speaking of workplace culture, we need to create a place where people can be their authentic selves. To reap the benefits of teams that bring cross-sectoral, -genera-

tional, and -cultural experiences, we have to create a space where people can speak freely and openly without fear of how their ideas or thoughts will be accepted.

Also, we need to ensure that we celebrate the success of the work we put forward. When we help design infrastructure to withstand a one in a thoucontinued overleaf…

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December 2023 | 41

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

Those of us who are already in the industry have a big part to play in our future success.

We need to develop a culture of continuous learning. When we have that knowledge, we need to commit to sharing it with the industry.

sand-year flood event, or help remediate and reinstate a long-disturbed ecosystem, the full success of our work may not be seen within our own lifetime.

But, building with future generations in mind is a foundational value. Much like planting a tree that your grandchild will sit under, or considering how your actions will impact the next seven generations. It’s important to demonstrate to our employees this long-term benefit that their work will have on a neighborhood, community or country.

On the academic side, we need to work with institutions to help ensure

42 | December 2023

advance the state of practice.

All of these values and skills will be vital for our industry’s professionals in the years ahead. If early career professionals can connect their projects to the wider impacts on the community and environment, they are more likely to find success and satisfaction in their work.

Working together, as an industry, we can overcome the challenges that lie ahead. We can address historical (and current) industry issues around inequity, bias and exclusion. We can celebrate the criticality of earth and environmental science and engineering in making the world a better place for all. And, in doing so, we will encourage the next generation of the Canadian workforce to look to our industry as a positive, challenging, and rewarding career.

they know what our industry needs from the next generations of earth and environmental professionals. We need them to know how to innovate and find new applications for technology as it becomes available.

They need to deeply care about the environment and the communities that are impacted by projects in all sectors. Julia Steele is the Senior Vice President, They also need to understand the inter- Earth and Environment, B.C. and connectedness of the hard science, social Yukon, for WSP in Canada. Email: influences, and environmental impacts julia.steele@wsp.com of our work. Lastly, they must have skills in problem solving, looking beyond the equations learned in class and be able to

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

Complacency to catastrophe: The perils of neglecting cybersecurity potential for cyber calamity is no longer an option.

Instead, proactive investment in comprehensive security measures and incident response strategies is essential. By

By John Daly doing so, consulting engineering firms not only protect their own interests, but also ensure the integrity and continuity of n the fast-paced world of con- the vital services they provide. It is time sulting engineering, where dig- for industry leaders to elevate cyber resilitization is as much a part of the ience to the forefront of their operational daily grind as our morning coffees, strategies, ensuring that today’s vigilance we may not fully appreciate the impact translates into tomorrow’s security. cyber-attacks can have on our ability to serve clients.

We shouldn’t wait for an incident that leaves teams unable to communicate, As consulting invoices unable to be sent or paid, and engineers integrate day-to-day operations caught in susmore technology into pended animation. In our rush to contheir workflows to nect and streamline technology, we might just leave the digital backdoor unlocked. drive efficiency and As consulting engineers integrate innovation, they also, more technology into their workflows to perhaps unwittingly, are drive efficiency and innovation, they also, constructing a digital perhaps unwittingly, are constructing a digital playground ripe for cyber misplayground ripe for chief. The recent hack of a sophisticated, cyber mischief. multi-national company in the energy sector is a cautionary tale of how this could happen.

In June 2023, a cyber-attack successfully penetrated that company’s defenses, DATA BREACHES ARE leading to widespread service outages. GOING TO HURT Customers were left without access to The cyber threat landscape is expandessential services, and the company ing at a breakneck pace, bringing confaced significant operational disruptions. siderable risks for all organizations. ConThe attack not only halted immediate sulting engineers today face an escalating activities, but also posed long-term ques- array of cyber risks that have major finantions about the security of critical infra- cial, reputational, and operational impacts structure and the importance of cyber if not properly addressed, because clients vigilance in an era where such breaches are paying them to be on top of these problems. are becoming all too common.

Data breaches that expose sensitive It is high time for the consulting engineering sector to focus on cybersecurity. client information, or proprietary intelWith digital incursions becoming more lectual property, are a prime concern. commonplace across various sectors, it is Hackers and cyber thieves are always imperative for consultants to safeguard looking for ways to infiltrate systems and their networks and fortify their systems steal valuable data assets. A breach could against unauthorized access. Ignoring the not only result in costly recovery efforts,

I

www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

but also erode client trust if a consultant fails to keep information secure.

A data breach can unfold like an intricate heist, where the target is the wealth of sensitive data that firms hold. It’s a multi-stage process that often begins with reconnaissance, where cybercriminals identify potential vulnerabilities in a firm’s digital defenses.

Attackers may start by scanning for exposed or weakly secured endpoints, such as outdated systems or unprotected IoT devices. They might also engage in social engineering tactics, like phishing emails, to deceive employees into revealing login credentials, or to trick them into installing malware that provides a backdoor into the network.

Phishing, malware, and social engineering schemes aimed at compromising corporate systems and data are incredibly effective. These only take one person at an organization to fall for the trick and let the hackers in. Through emails, fake websites, and other techniques, attackers seek to gain a foothold in a network for further infiltration. Without proper employee training and safeguards, falling prey to these traps can trigger cascading crises.

Once inside, hackers exploit these vulnerabilities to move laterally across the network, seeking out databases, file servers, and other repositories of valuable data. They may employ privilege escalation techniques to gain higher levels of access, allowing them to reach sensitive areas that are typically restricted.

Data can be siphoned off slowly to avoid detection, or in a rapid burst if the attackers feel their presence has been noticed. This data might include personal client information, proprietary designs, project bids, financial records, or strategic plans.

And they won’t stop there! Even after the initial exfiltration, attackers often try to maintain access to the system for future exploitation. They may install backdoors or rootkits, which continued overleaf…

December 2023 | 43

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

allow them to return to the compromised network undetected.

They might manipulate logs to cover their tracks. Slicker than Danny Ocean’s team stealing from the Bellagio.

Consequences of a data breach are far-reaching. There’s the immediate financial impact of investigating the breach, legal fees, potential fines, and the cost of strengthening cybersecurity measures post-incident. The damage to the firm’s reputation can be even more devastating, leading to a loss of client trust.

Ransomware represents another top digital threat. Using the same tactics, cybercriminals can encrypt and lock down critical files and servers, bringing business operations to a standstill. Paying the ransom demand may be the only way to regain access quickly, but even then, the impacts of work delays and disrupted client services can linger.

WHO LEFT THE DOOR OPEN?

The downside to working in digital workflows is all the additional security measures you need to be thinking about. Cyber defenses are all about shrinking an organization’s attack surface to be as small as possible, because nothing is truly “hacker-proof ” unless they are an organization completely off the grid.

Firms have to get serious about strategic resilience by baking cyber defense into their DNA through both proactive measures and incident response plans, or they will be hacked.

The main crux of the problem comes down to a lack of oversight on data flows and access controls, which renders valuable information vulnerable. Without stringent cyber hygiene practices, a single endpoint infection can spread quickly.

Proactive cyber risk assessment, disaster planning, and implementation of security controls are fundamental to resilience. Unfortunately, such measures are often treated as an afterthought rather than an integral part of business strategy.

Insufficient attention to detection, monitoring, and incident response capabilities leaves gaps.

It is not getting enough attention because it’s not top of mind for employees. That goes right into our next point of minimal training on cyber best practices. Engineering consultants are subject matter experts in their technical realms, but not always properly trained on cyber basics like spotting phishing attempts, using strong passwords, and securing devices. Lack of regular staff education on the latest threats and defense tactics amplifies risk.

Many firms direct the bulk of their technology budgets to core engineering systems, while under-investing in protections like network monitoring, endpoint security, access controls, and data encryption. Purchasing the latest design applications with44 | December 2023

out boosting cyber defenses is counterproductive. Organizations need to be doing both, because a hack is more expensive by far.

THE ART OF DIGITAL DEFENSE

Cybersecurity as an afterthought needs to change. Firms have to get serious about strategic resilience by baking cyber defense into their DNA through both proactive measures and incident response plans, or they will be hacked. Most hackers are not picking an organization to prey on because they have a personal vendetta against it, it is because they are an easier target than the next company.

On the proactive side, cyber hygiene basics are a must.

These include strong passwords, access controls, and software updates. But it can’t stop there. A layered defense model is necessary, incorporating firewalls, endpoint monitoring, intrusion detection, and data encryption. The goal is creating depth across systems to better prevent, detect, and contain threats.

Don’t forget the human element either. Ongoing staff education is key, so employees at all levels understand their role in the firm’s cyber resilience. IT partnerships provide valuable outside expertise as well. With remote work expanding, securing endpoints off-site becomes more important than ever. The right security platforms provide centralized visibility and protection across distributed teams.

Also, it is essential to prepare for the worst. Response plans should designate roles, outline communications protocols, address legal and compliance obligations, and define how to contain attacks and restore operations if a breach occurs.

Detailed continuity planning minimizes downtime. Offline backups, alternative work arrangements, and third-party response contracts give firms the tools to rebound quickly.

Prioritizing cybersecurity now, pays dividends through avoided crises down the road. Resilience is about being proactive, not reactive. Consulting firms must embrace this mindset shift to remain competitive and uphold client trust, or they’ll lose business to companies that do emphasize cybersecurity.

TURNING THE TABLES ON DIGITAL THREATS

The cyber dangers facing all companies today is clear. As connectivity and data exchange accelerate, so do the risks of breach, theft, and operational disruption. Lack of adequate defenses and preparedness plans expose firms to potential catastrophe. So, don’t be the company that gets hacked.

Consulting engineering leaders who recognize cyber resilience as an urgent strategic priority can gain a competitive edge. Investing in layered security, staff training, and incident response protocols demonstrates commitment to clients while future-proofing operations. By contrast, firms that lag on cybersecurity undermine their own viability.

By infusing operations with a rich blend of vigilance, training, and cutting-edge cyber defenses, consultants can ensure that their work, and their clients’ trust has the lid on tight, preventing a spill.

John Daly is with Parsons Corporation. Email: john.daly@parsons.com Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

How engineers and Indigenous communities can redefine consultation

By David Nesseth

T

he first time Norman Meade met an engineer, he was living in a small Indigenous Manitoba community that wanted to build a curling rink. “He was on step 10 and we were kind of on step zero or step one,” recalls Meade, 78, who currently lives in Winnipeg and works part-time as an Elder in Residence at the University of Manitoba.

Meade and his Métis community of Manigotagan worked with the visiting engineer to bring those numbers closer together. Throughout the project, they needed to convince him about the quality of their sawmill’s ungraded lumber, gently steer him away from a highly technical perspective and manner of speaking, and help him understand the community’s personal connection to the environment.

“All of our relations doesn’t mean just all of our relationships with Indigenous leaders and Indigenous people in that community,” says Meade. “It means Indigenous thought or Indigenous thinking and all our relations with everything that is on that land.”

Meade, who says the curling rink still stands today, some 50 years later, shares this story of project consultation with a group of collaborators. Each one spent the last few years helping Engineers Canada develop a new Guideline on Indigenous Consultation and Engagement, all in the hopes of improving an engagement process they believe has often failed to protect the Indigenous public.

They are all too aware of the hundreds of cases at the federal level, since 2004, involving Indigenous group court challenges over a lack of adequate consultation or accommodation, and hope their insights can contribute to forging a new path forward.

The new consultation guideline, produced by Engineers Canada’s Canadian www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

Elder Norman Meade. Credit: University of Manitoba Indigenous Student Centre.

Engineering Qualifications Board (CEQB), is considered a living document designed to provide project leaders with a practical tool for conducting more meaningful engagement between engineers and Indigenous communities. The collaborators view the development process for the guideline as itself a model for relationship building between the engineering profession and Indigenous communities.

This guideline’s development coincided with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Engineers Canada’s Indigenous Advisory Committee invited First Nations communities to participate in three regional and two national virtual fireside sharing circles to reflect the different views and needs across the provinces. Meade opened each session with prayer and words of wisdom before the sharing circles explored how future infrastructure project discussions could better serve First Nations.

“Having it virtual really did allow people from remote locations to come,”

explains Danilo Caron, a project engineer with Urban Systems Ltd., the consulting firm that supported the development of the guideline.

As for the sessions themselves, Caron says the invitees “really pushed back against the idea of creating a checklist.”

They wanted to ensure the guideline was “community-specific and not cookie-cutter.”

Caron, who is of mixed Italian and Anishinaabe heritage, says the sessions left him with the message that companies can accomplish a lot before Indigenous consultation even begins. Defined as pre-engagement learning, he says companies can take actions as simple as visiting the website and social media pages of an Indigenous community. In addition to learning about the local history, he says respectful actions such as understanding how the community’s seasonal practices could impact engagement availability could go a long way towards building trust and respect.

“There’s a relationship to improve, and in some ways begin again,” says Caron, who hopes people will not only use the guideline, but “view it critically.”

Another simple yet powerful sign of respect could be the preparation of a land acknowledgement specific to the territory and community involved, the guideline recommends.

The Engineers Canada guideline makes a point of distinguishing between consultation and engagement, underlining that engagement is about building relationships outside of legal obligations, with the aim of establishing trust and understanding. It suggests that engagement “explores opportunities beyond community involvement in the project delivery,” and sets the context for the effectiveness of consultation.

“Even a well-intentioned company can struggle to adapt to a culture and mindcontinued overleaf…

December 2023 | 45

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

set that really appreciates the Indigenous worldview,” says Connor Scheu, a Métis renewable energy engineer on Engineers Canada’s Indigenous Advisory Committee. “What our current system allows is for friction, because we smash these worldviews together.”

Scheu says Indigenous communities can be hurt by the urgency often attached to projects, particularly ones already behind schedule. When engineers arrive in communities for consultation and engagement, he says there may be very little room left for actual change to a project’s plan without substantial cost.

Companies can then end up viewing the consultation as merely crossing their Ts and approach the process as a legal obligation instead of an opportunity to genuinely listen and engage in meaningful dialogue. A lack of transparency, he says, can end up being justified by claims of confidentiality or the need for internal approvals.

“So, what we hope for going forward is a kind of disassembly of these norms,” says Scheu, who adds that while engineers crave solutions, the concept of reconciliation is an ongoing endeavour.

After learning about the Indigenous communities involved, making initial introductions, and receiving basic feedback on the proposed project, the new guideline suggests creating an engagement plan. The timing, the forum, and selection of the right people from the right First Nation to be involved in the community engagement, on both sides, are all critical elements of getting an engagement plan off the ground, says Scheu.

While it is called a “plan”, the guideline notes that it is important to maintain flexibility along the road of building trust.

When the engagement process has run its course, the guideline suggests making a summary to “confirm with the community that you interpreted their input correctly and have a shared understanding” that maintains transparency. Evaluation can also occur after the project is complete.

Ryan Melsom, manager of qualifications and CEQB secretary at Engineers Canada, says the guideline has the real possibility to have far-reaching impacts.

“An ideal outcome would be to see this type of work integrated into regulation, 46 | December 2023

When an engineer visited the Manitoba community of Manigotagan to build a community curling rink, (shown on the bottom), both sides needed to learn how to communicate effectively. Meade and his Métis community needed to convince the visiting engineer for the curling rink project about the quality of their sawmill’s ungraded lumber. Photo Credit: Mennonite Heritage Archives

education, and continuing professional development,” he says.

For Elder Meade, who went on to create the Winnipeg Aboriginal Curling League, and still likes to play in the winter, an important consideration for engagement is that it can’t just happen at the beginning of a project’s timeline.

To be meaningfully effective, he says collaboration needs to occur throughout all phases of a project’s timeline.

Meade says he is also aware that it could take several generations before the true benefits of the new guideline are clearly visible. “Our children, our grandchildren and the unborn child will hopefully see the work that we have put into this,” he says.

David Nesseth is with ES&E Magazine.

Email: david@esemag.com

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

Engineering firms can bolster internal teams by hiring outside consultants

By Murray Heywood

and Cortney Schwab

O

ne person, or firm, cannot be the best at everything. Many owners and engineering firms struggle to find the perfect combination of skilled and experienced staff to meet their needs in today’s changing world.

The retirement of older engineers creates a challenging experience void.

Education is crucial, but it alone won’t solve engineering problems. Experience gained from years of toiling in a particular field, suffering the pain and expense of past mistakes, and learning from them, are vital elements to problem solving.

There are many bright and promising new engineers whose enthusiasm and dedication to their disciplines is admirable. These grapes are destined to become a signature vintage wine with time and fermentation. However, there is no way to expedite or accelerate experience gain. Education, field experience, and problem-solving combine to create experts in any discipline. We need to be patient with the next generation. Much of the education process is important, yet more general in nature. Engineering problems are not always general.

There are inherent risks to firms when inexperience meets nuanced problems. If not managed properly, these risks can turn into financial liabilities and undermine confidence in both the individual and the www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

To create effective rehabilitation specifications, one must evaluate the level of corrosives, the condition of the metal, and the current rust/corrosion extent when assessing metallic surfaces.

firm. There’s no shame in acknowledging a lack of knowledge regarding difficult challenges. There is definitely a risk in not admitting it.

Unfortunately, material failures occur relatively routinely. Failures often occur when the engineering firm performing design lacks understanding of the structure, substrate, or the working environment. As a result, they provide insufficient specifications that lead to costly failures. Most of these failures are completely avoidable.

Many issues require specific skills and experience to have a full understanding of the issues and potential solutions. For example, when working with concrete substrates, it is critical to fully understand the corrosion mechanisms at play, and any other underlying issues, to provide effective solutions.

To work in concrete assessment, you need skills in concrete placement, curing, identifying deterioration causes, understanding corrosion mechanisms, and implementing testing protocols for practical solutions.

Another example is stainless steel.

Choosing the incorrect grade of stainless steel for a project has historically resulted in numerous premature failures.

The variances in corrosion resistance between stainless steel grades, depend-

ing on the environment and exposure, is a science unto itself. The specifier always has the option to select a top-grade stainless steel. However, that approach could be impractical and excessively expensive, probably surpassing the project’s budget, and it may still not be the correct choice.

A complete understanding of enduse conditions, including performance requirements unrelated to corrosion, as well as knowledge of various stainless steel grades and their properties and possible shortcomings, are necessary to determine which alloys will be effective.

Given their many project responsibilities, design engineers cannot reasonably stay updated on coating and lining advancements. However, incorrectly addressing these requirements can have disastrous consequences.

Understanding all the various protective coating and lining options and determining where to use them can be complex. However, engineering students receive little to no education on protective coatings and linings. When environmental and engineering controls alone cannot be manipulated to decrease the level of corrosion, companies rely on protective coatings and linings as the last line of defense against corrosion.

Engineers can access free information on coatings and linings from manufacturers, but it’s worth considering that a manufacturer’s suggestion may not always be the optimal choice. In other words, they may honestly offer their best product to solve a problem, it just may not be the best product for the task.

These examples, along with a range of other issues, are part of the daily challenges in any project. Not all design engineering firms have the expertise to manage these challenges. When this is the case, the best way for such firms to manage the risk of getting it wrong is to engage outside help from proven experts.

Experience is crucial when assessing structures that need rehabilitation. continued overleaf…

December 2023 | 47

SPECIAL FOCUS: CONSULTANTS’ FORUM

Before preparing project specifications, it is important to assess all substrates.

Without a comprehensive assessment, it is impossible to determine the rehabilitation needs.

The answer to the inexperience issue is for design engineering firms to search out and use verifiable industry experts in the various specialty fields of engineering. Most design engineering firms do not focus on only one industry, as they are multifaceted firms that work in varying markets.

It rarely makes sense for such firms to have in-house experts/specialists in disciplines where they may not have enough work to keep the expert productive. Relative to corrosion prevention, it might not be logical to employ specialists in cathodic protection, protective coatings, or metallurgy/materials science since these needs can be sporadic and depend on project workload.

Acquiring these specialized services from an independent, specialized con-

sulting firm makes the most sense, and the fees for this work can be recouped on the project without paying extra for staff benefits and wages. Engaging experienced and professional independent consulting firms to be a part of an engineering project team not only ensures a better chance of catching any nuanced issues in the long run, younger engineers will also learn from the more experienced specialists. This allows the knowledge to grow organically while managing the risk for engineering firms.

Many firms prefer to do most of the work internally to save money and increase profits, while still trying to serve their clients well. Enforcing this “in house” utilization in too rigid a manner can bring undue risk to the firm and taint the firm’s reputation if problems or failures occur.

Ignorance is never a good defense and does not play out well in legal cases.

Bringing in these specialists, when necessary, will boost a design engineer-

Stormwater

ing team’s effectiveness and guarantee more efficient and accurate outcomes.

The client will be left with a strong sense of representation and confidence in the outcome.

Murray Heywood and Cortney Schwab are with Corrosion Probe Inc. Email: heywoodm@cpiengineering.com

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48 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

PFAS

Buffalo piloting advanced Hamiltonbased technology for PFAS removal

By ES&E Staff

A

n advanced oxidation technology targeted at perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that was developed by Hamilton-based, StreamGo, is being used by the City of Buffalo, New York.

This technology may even benefit the Great Lakes as New York State works to improve the Niagara River by deconstructing any PFAS that have leached in through sources such as household and industrial products.

StreamGo is currently underway with its pilot project testing at Buffalo’s Bird Island Treatment Facility, where the focus is on landfill leachate received by the Buffalo Sewer Authority. Landfill leachate is one of the four major sources of PFAS contamination, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The team is working to deconstruct into base elements the concentrated PFAS filtered from leachate. According to StreamGo, reverse osmosis and nanotechnology absorption are used to isolate and concentrate PFAS from leachate, before it runs through the destruction process. The company says its treatment process is EPA-compliant and essentially breaks the bond between carbon and fluorine within the PFAS compound.

“PFAS chemicals are separated, concentrated, removed and deconstructed,” according to StreamGo’s website. “This allows us to deliver 100% safe, purified water for human consumption and domestic use.” The company says no hazardous byproducts are created by its turn-key, closed-loop treatment process, eliminating the need for costly third-party disposal.

Prior to treating the PFAS in Buffalo’s leachate, PFAS levels stood at 30,000 parts per trillion. After installing StreamGo’s solution, regulated PFAS levels in the treated landfill leachate

StreamGo is currently underway with its pilot project testing at Buffalo’s Bird Island Treatment Facility. Credit: Buffalo Sewer Authority.

received were minimized to non-detectable levels, allowing for safe discharge into the environment.

In 2022, New York State invested $55 million to modernize the Bird Island facility and significantly reduce sewer overflows and the amount of pollution that enters the Niagara River.

A recent survey suggests that operational costs for wastewater utilities could increase by more than 60%, which is some three times higher than federal projections, as a direct result of new PFAS regulations in the U.S. The proposal marked the first time in 26 years that the EPA set legal limits for a contaminant in drinking water.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

Leachate from landfill sites often contains significant amounts of PFAS. Credit: vschalup, stock.adobe.com www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

December 2023 | 49

STORMWATER

Analyzing sediment depth accumulations in installed oil-grit separators

By Joel Garbon

F

or several decades, oil-grit separators (OGS) have been used in Canada to treat stormwater runoff and snow melt from roadways, parking lots, fueling stations, and other impervious areas located on commercial, industrial and residential development sites.

Ideally, OGS devices are employed in a treatment train upstream of ponds, filtration practices, and detention structures, serving a primary role in the capture of trash, suspended solids and hydrocarbons while extending the maintenance interval of the downstream measure. For urban retrofits and other constrained sites where filtering treatment may be impractical, OGS as a stand-alone measure is often the best available option. This is especially true when conservatively sized to capture a substantial portion of the silt fractions of stormwater particulates.

The primary treatment principle utilized by an OGS device is gravity separation. During storm events, high specific gravity particulates suspended in the influent, such as sand and degraded asphalt, settle to the sump of the OGS treatment chamber. Low specific gravity pollutants, such as oil and buoyant trash, are separated by flotation and trapped within the device, including both wet weather and dry weather hydrocarbon spills.

Some OGS devices have components specifically designed to prevent or minimize re-entrainment and washout (scour) of captured pollutants during the very intense storm events that generate high influent flow rates. Regulators generally permit the on-line installation of OGS devices that have demonstrated effective scour prevention under controlled laboratory conditions. Devices that are scour-prone should be installed off-line, utilizing an upstream diversion structure to route excessive flows around the treatment unit.

In general, OGS manufacturers, regulators, and engineering consultants have made the assumption that the scour testing results from laboratory evaluation of an OGS are translatable to the real-world performance of the device in preventing scour under actual field conditions. However, little field data has been available to this point to validate such an assumption.

There are several aspects of a laboratory scour testing regimen that may depart from circumstances encountered in field installations. The Canadian ETV protocol, Procedure for Laboratory Testing of Oil-Grit Separators, specifies a scour testing sediment that is comprised of ground silica with a specific gravity of 2.65 and particle size distribution consistent with the so-called “ETV PSD”. Particle sizes can range from one to 1,000 microns and d50 less than or equal to 75 microns.

Test sediment is pre-loaded into the OGS sump to a level equivalent to 50% of the manufacturer’s recommended sediment maintenance depth. The device is then subjected to clean 50 | December 2023

Sediment depth measurements taken during the first inspection and second inspection were provided to Imbrium.

influent flow rates corresponding to surface loading rates ranging from 200 – 2,600 L/min/m2, with effluent samples collected and analyzed for TSS concentration.

Real-world conditions may differ markedly from laboratory conditions. For starters, the specific gravity of actual urban stormwater sediment loads is not homogeneous. It may be substantially lower than 2.65, depending on the particulate composition, especially the presence of substantial vegetative particulates, tire crumb, and particulate-bound hydrocarbons.

Influent particle size distribution is quite variable in the field, often dominated by finer silt fractions in heavily trafficked urban areas. Depending on sediment loads and maintenance frequency, the depth of accumulated sediment in the sump may substantially exceed the manufacturer’s recommended sediment maintenance depth.

Presumably, this increases the potential for scour during intense inflows due to the reduced water column height above the sediment bed and correspondingly compromised attenuaEnvironmental Science & Engineering Magazine

tion of stream velocities in the chamber.

In order to gain insight on the in-field sediment capture and scour prevention performance of its latest generation of OGS devices, Imbrium Systems collaborated with Minotaur Stormwater Services to analyze the sediment depths from periodic inspections of 43 Stormceptor EF and 47 Stormceptor EFO units installed at sites in Ontario and Quebec.

Minotaur is a provider of inspection and maintenance services for manufactured stormwater treatment devices in both of these provinces.

Sediment depth measurements taken during the first inspection and second inspection (if data was available) were provided to Imbrium for these 90 OGS devices. The target time interval between device installation and first inspection is 12 months. The time interval between first and second inspections is site dependent and typically ranges from six to 18 months.

All model sizes of the two OGS types were represented in the analysis, ranging from the smallest units (122 cm diameter) to the largest (366 cm diameter). Units were classified by model size and arranged by depth of sediment from lowest to highest. No attempt was made to classify the units by land use, site type, or specific sizing criteria. Given the relatively large number of OGS devices under observation, the goal of the study was to examine for trends and a highlevel understanding of real-world performance.

Bar charts depicting sediment depths in first and second inspections for the nine Stormceptor EFO4 units (122 cm diameter) and ten Stormceptor EFO8 units (244 cm diameter) are presented in Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively, and are representative of the results and trends found for other model sizes of both OGS types.

Each bar is numbered based on the depth of sediment accumulation measured at the first inspection (represented by the blue bar), with Unit 1 having the lowest measured sediment depth, and progressing up to the unit with the highest sediment depth measurement. Additional sediment depth accumulated between the first and second inspection is represented by the orange bar.

®

www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

Figure 1

®

1 © 2018 Imbrium® Systems Inc. & Imbrium® Systems LLC

Figure 2

2 © 2018 Imbrium® Systems Inc. & Imbrium® Systems LLC

OBSERVATIONS

Units with the lowest reported sediment accumulation at the first inspection (i.e., 25 mm) often had no reported increase in sediment depth at the second inspection. This is likely due to those sites being relatively “clean” (low sediment loading in runoff), combined with the sediment depth measurement being an estimate that is rounded to the nearest whole number of mm. For example, a unit with 12 mm of sediment at the first inspection and 32 mm of sediment at the second inspection would be reported as having 25 mm of sediment

at each inspection.

Some units had relatively high sediment accumulation at the first inspection and relatively low additional sediment accumulation at the second inspection. These units are likely representative of sites that had not yet been stabilized at the time of commissioning the unit. Such sites would tend to have relatively high sediment loadings in runoff during the first year of operation as residual construction sediment and exposed soil from immature landscaped areas was washed off the site. continued overleaf…

December 2023 | 51

STORMWATER

Figure 3

© 2018 Imbrium® Systems Inc. & Imbrium® Systems LLC

Some units had relatively low sediment accumulation at the first inspection and relatively high additional sediment depth at the second inspection. These units are likely representative of sites that experienced a significant increase in traffic and commercial activity in the second year as compared to the first year after commissioning of the unit.

Fourteen of the ninety units had excessive sediment accumulation (greater than 75 cm) at the first or second inspection. These are likely representative of sites that were either not stabilized at the time of commissioning of the unit, sites

is presented in Figure 3. The median values can be considered representative of the “typical” Stormceptor unit. In general, the median data shows fairly balanced sediment accumulation in the periods between unit commissioning, first inspection, and second inspection. Additionally, the median data shows that the typical unit will require maintenance cleanout every two to five years, consistent with standard Stormceptor sizing guidelines, and based on the recommended sediment maintenance depth for each model size.

Twenty-seven of the ninety units had sediment accumulation equal to or greater than the recommended sediment maintenance depth, with some of the units having sediment accumulations greatly exceeding the guideline depth for 3 cleanout. The data demonstrates that the OGS units continue to be effective for with a high degree of road sand applica- sediment capture well beyond the target tion during winter conditions, or sites sediment maintenance depth, and prothat have very high sediment loadings in vide sediment storage volume to accomrunoff due to the nature of the business modate excess loads.

Despite this fact, it remains best pracactivity and road/parking lot surface tice to maintain the device consistent composition.

Total sediment depth does not decline with the manufacturer guidelines. Such between the first and second inspections, practice helps ensure optimal water which demonstrates that the OGS tech- quality treatment and reduces the potennology is effective for preventing scour tial for maintenance complications due of previously captured sediment during to compacted sediment. subsequent high intensity storm events.

A bar chart depicting median sedi- Joel Garbon is with ment depth in first and second inspec- Imbrium Systems. Email: tions by model size for both OGS types joel.garbon@imbriumsystems.com

Credit: knelson20, stock.adobe.com 52 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

CONFERENCE REPORT

The importance of attending regional water and wastewater association events

By Denis Orendt

W

hen some people think of the water and wastewater industry, the big cities seem to come to mind.

Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, London and Windsor. The southern cities are always the focus. However, Thunder Bay was this year’s host city for the 2023 Northwestern Ontario Water and Wastewater Conference (NWOWWC), which took place October 12 and 13 at the Delta Marriott Hotel, overlooking the harbour.

TBay as it is called, is home to approximately 113,000 residents. It is Ontario’s major shipping port in the north and home to the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.

Compared to the big city shows, the NWOWWC event may seem small, but more than 150 enthusiastic water and wastewater professionals attended the two-day event to join their peers and learn about new policies, trends and technologies related to their industry.

The conference started in 1962. It was initially just a club of water operators and engineers talking about their work experiences around some refreshments.

As time went on it developed into a professional event that has spanned 61 years.

A constitution and conference committee were formed in 2005. It outlines the membership, associate members, voting, meetings, officers, elections, term of office, board of directors, and fees. The last conference was held in 2019 when COVID-19 hit and everything stopped.

It was through a persistent group of dedicated volunteers that the conference was resurrected to attract attendees from all municipalities within the districts of Kenora, Rainy River and Thunder Bay. This year’s keynote speaker was Bruce Taylor, president of Enviro-Stewards Inc. His presentation covered water’s contributions to resiliency, decarbonization and sustainable development goals. Taylor is very well known in the water and wastewater industry. He has three decades www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

More than 150 water and wastewater professionals and 25 exhibitors attended the two-day event.

of experience in the fields of water and energy conservation, pollution prevention, sustainable development, and treatment process design. He has won awards in the pollution prevention field in both Canada and the United States.

Enviro-Stewards staff have completed resource conservation studies for aerospace, automotive, beverage, commercial product, food, mining, nuclear, petrochemical, pulp & paper, pharmaceutical, specialty chemical, and textile industries.

Also, their assessments for 60 industrial facilities under York Region’s water conservation program won an Ontario Water Works Association award, as they found an average of 36% water savings per facility with paybacks under 1.5 years.

A representative from the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks’ Water and Wastewater Division provided updates as to the provincial government’s current policies. Additional conference sessions included: • Surveillance from below: A COVID19 story.

• Proactive approach to transmission main condition assessment.

• Understanding cybersecurity requirements for critical infrastructure.

• Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

• Clow Canada’s smart hydrant technology.

• Bioretention stormwater treatment performance in Thunder Bay. More than 25 exhibitors displayed their products and services, which is a good indication that many businesses recognize the efforts of the conference committee and the success they have had in developing an event that is growing.

The importance of presenting and attending regional events should not be overlooked. It is important to have the opportunity to meet with your peers to discuss and experience the industry together on a more informal basis.

If you work in the north, be sure to add next year’s event to your calendar and attend the 2024 Northwestern Ontario Water and Wastewater Conference.

Denis Orendt is with Aquatic Aeration Solutions. Email: aquatic.aeration.solutions@gmail.com

December 2023 | 53

ES&E NEWS REPLACING LEAD PIPES ACROSS U.S. WOULD COST 15 TIMES LESS THAN ONGOING HEALTH IMPACTS, SAYS REPORT

is an urgent public health crisis, as tens of millions of people essentially drink water from a lead straw, unaware of the big risk to their health. We found staggering health and dollar benefits for removing lead water pipes. And water utilities that do nothing are essentially opting in favor of avoidable and costly health risks and even deaths.”

In 2019, Health Canada published revised guidelines, lowering the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) of lead in drinking water, from 0.01 mg/L (set in 1992) to 0.005 mg/L. For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

RESEARCHERS FIND RARE METALS LINKED TO AEROSPACE INDUSTRY BUILDING UP IN STRATOSPHERE

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) suggests that the U.S. could save an estimated $786 billion in health-related costs over the next 35 years if it replaced all lead service lines for drinking water. The report estimates that the national cost of removing all lead service lines would be in the range of $46 to $56 billion, or $5,000 to $6,100 per lead service line removal.

NRDC created a state-by-state breakdown of how many lead service lines exist, as well as the potential health savings from replacing them. As of 2021, some of the states with the most lead lines were Illinois (679,292), Ohio (650,000), Michigan (460,000), and New York (360,000). The U.S. EPA recently conducted a nationwide survey of many water utilities and state officials and estimated that there are about 9.2 million lead service lines nationwide.

The NRDC report relies on data from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University to make links between lead exposure and the costs of all the potential health risks.

These range from impacts on the nervous system of children and adults, including cognitive function decrements, to cardiovascular concerns.

Cardiovascular treatment costs, primarily linked to hypertension and heart disease, comprise the bulk of annual health care costs at $28.3 billion. The report references a June 2023 statement from the American Heart Association that noted exposure to lead is linked to numerous cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack and stroke.

The study also found that lead exposure is linked to a range of negative impacts on the brain, with an estimated cost of $200 million per year for ADHD, $84 million for depression, and $40 million for dementia.

Benefits for individual states that replace lead service lines range from $124 million for Alaska on the low end, to $89 to $99 billion in Illinois and Florida at the high end, the report says.

“Decades ago, health risks led to a ban on lead from gasoline and paint, but lead remains widespread in drinking water across the nation,” announced Erik D. Olson, NRDC’s senior strategic director for health, who authored the report. “This 54 | December 2023

NOAA scientists Dan Murphy and Gregg Schill work on installing the PALMS instrument in the nose of the NASA WB-57. Credit: NOAA

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have used new mission data to show that the stratosphere is being polluted by metals from satellites and spent rocket boosters vaporized during re-entry.

NOAA analyzed the data collected by its high-altitude research plane over the Arctic for its Chemical Science Laboratory mission called SABRE. It revealed aluminum and exotic metals embedded in about 10% of sulfuric acid particles, which comprise the large majority of particles in the stratosphere more than 11 km above the surface.

“Two of the most surprising elements we saw in these particles were niobium and hafnium,” announced NOAA chemist Daniel Murphy, who led a team of scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences at Purdue and the University of Leeds, in a statement. “These are both rare elements that are not expected in the stratosphere. It was a mystery as to where these metals are coming from and how they’re ending up there,” added Murphy.

Niobium and hafnium are refined from mineral ores and used in semiconductors and superalloys, according to NOAA. The research team also found that a significant number of particles contained copper, lithium and aluminum at concentrations exceeding what’s expected in “space dust” or meteorics.

“The combination of aluminum and copper, plus niobium and Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

ES&E NEWS hafnium, which are used in heat-resistant, high-performance alloys, pointed us to the aerospace industry,’’ said Murphy.

In all, scientists identified more than 20 distinct elements from spacecraft and satellite re-entry in particles sampled during SABRE, including: silver, iron, lead, magnesium, titanium, beryllium, chromium, nickel, zinc and lithium.

The elements were identified through a custom-built instrument called PALMS (Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry), which ingests and chemically analyzes individual particles in the air one by one as the aircraft is in flight.

PALMS is installed into the nose cone of the research aircraft with a large forward-facing air intake inlet, according to NOAA. An aerosol particle passes through two detecting laser beams that measure its size and speed. A third high-powered laser is then precisely triggered to vaporize the particle.

NOAA scientists say they are eager to understand how these particles of aerospace debris interact with other aerosols in the stratosphere because of anticipated increases in space traffic and their potential impact on the ozone layer. They also want to explore the impact of possible future proposals to seed the stratosphere with millions of tons of sulfur aerosols to slow the rate of global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space.

“There will be a lot of work to understand the implications of these novel metals in the stratosphere,” explained Murphy.

As of October, the tracking website Orbiting Now lists 8,697 satellites currently in orbit, 7,892 of which are in low Earth orbit and are destined to burn up on re-entry.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

CHARLOTTETOWN WINS KEY WATER AWARDS AT ACWWA ANNUAL CONFERENCE

in the Tap Water Taste Test Regional Competition based on appearance, odour, taste and overall impression. The win dethroned the New Brunswick City of Miramichi, last year’s taste test champion.

New Brunswick’s Natoaganeg First Nation and the Montague Water and Sewer Corporation in P.E.I. placed second place in the Best of the Best Taste Test.

Charlottetown, host of the 2023 ACWWA Conference, also celebrated a win for the Silent Hero Award, which recognizes the outstanding contributions of water and wastewater operators in Atlantic Canada. This year the category honoured the career achievements of Charlottetown Pollution Control Plant employee Jason McCabe, who has been with the plant since 2006.

“Many residents never see the level of expertise that goes into ensuring the proper functioning of our critical water and wastewater systems,” said Councillor Bob Doiron, chair of the Water & Sewer Utility Committee, in a statement. “Most of this work happens behind the scenes, and I want to thank and congratulate Jason on a job very well done on behalf of all Charlottetown residents.”

Charlottetown officials further announced in a statement that McCabe has “consistently proven himself to be a dedicated and dependable technician who is always up for the task at hand and quietly takes care of challenges as they arrive.”

Additionally, Charlottetown shared a win with the Town of Stratford for the 2023 Project of the Year in the Large Utility category. The Charlottetown/Stratford Wastewater Treatment Consolidation project, completed with Stantec and CBCL, facilitated connections of the Stratford and East Royalty sewage systems to the Charlottetown wastewater treatment plant.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

U.S. EPA CLOSE TO REGULATORY ACTION ON 6PPD TIRE CHEMICAL LETHAL TO SALMON

The city of Charlottetown won “Best of the Best” in the Tap Water Taste Test Regional Competition based on appearance, odour, taste, and overall impression. Pictured are Michael Trainor, Mike Pigott, Eric Fortune, Richard MacEwen, and Joshua McInnis. Credit: ACWWA

The Prince Edward Island city of Charlottetown is celebrat- The EPA says its Office of Water is currently developing an ing several new awards following the recent Atlantic Canada analytical method for detection of 6PPD-quinone in surface and Water and Wastewater Association (ACWWA) Annual Con- stormwater. Credit: candy1812, stock.adobe.com ference, where more than 460 water and wastewater professionals met to learn and share best industry practices.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it The city of about 40,000 residents won “Best of the Best” continued overleaf… www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

December 2023 | 55

ES&E NEWS plans to change the Toxic Substances Control Act to address the HAMILTON UNVEILS FINAL WOODWARD WWTP environmental risks of 6PPD-quinone, an oxidation product of UPGRADES a common chemical used to prevent vehicle tire degradation.

6PPD can also be found in other rubber products such as footwear, synthetic turf infill, and playgrounds. The chemical reacts with ozone in the air to form a toxic byproduct called 6PPD-quinone (6PPD-Q). The EPA’s announcement comes on the heels of the agency granting a petition on behalf of several U.S.-based First Nations tribes to ban 6PPD due to its proven lethality for coho salmon and other fish vulnerable to rubber wearing off tires and leaching into stormwater systems and water bodies.

“EPA is responding to our Tribal partners by taking action to protect the coho salmon, which are a key part of the Tribes’ cultural identity and economic security,” announced Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a statement. “These salmon Carlyle Khan, General Manager of Public Works; Nrinder Nann, Chair and other fish have suffered dramatic decreases in population of the Works Committee; MPP Donna Skelly; Kinga Surma, Ontario over the years. Addressing 6PPD-quinone in the environment, Minister of Infrastructure; Filomena Tassi, Minister Responsible for the and the use of its parent, 6PPD, is one way we can work to Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, MPP for reverse this trend.”

Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas; Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath; The EPA intends to publish an advanced notice of proposed Councillor Tammy Hwang; Councillor John-Paul Danko; Director of rulemaking under Section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act Hamilton Water, Nick Winters. Credit: City of Hamilton (TSCA), potentially to inform regulatory action.

The agency also plans to finalize a rule under Section 8(d) of City of Hamilton officials have announced the completion the TSCA to require 6PPD manufacturers, including import- of six years and $340-million in upgrades to the Woodward ers, to report lists and copies of unpublished health and safety Wastewater Treatment Plant, part of which are designed to cut studies to the EPA by the end of 2024. phosphorus loading to Hamilton Harbour by 500 tonnes over In late 2020, Washington-based researchers discovered that the next decade. minute concentrations of 6PPD-quinone in stormwater in the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan coordinator KrisPacific Northwest were found to be lethal to coho salmon after tin O’Connor says the Woodward WWTP upgrades mark the only a few hours of exposure. For decades, it was a mystery first time in over 100 years that wastewater will no longer be why 90% of salmon would die when migrating through urban the strongest contributor of phosphorus to the harbour.

“It is exciting to reach this important milestone in improvstreams in an attempt to spawn in the Seattle area.

The EPA says its Office of Water is currently developing an ing water quality,” O’Connor announced in a recent statement. analytical method for detection of 6PPD-quinone in surface “This upgrade brings us closer to realizing the Remedial Action and stormwater. Additionally, it is developing draft screen- Plan vision of Hamilton Harbour being a vibrant centrepiece ing values for 6PPD-quinone and 6PPD to protect sensitive of our community.”

The upgrades elevate the Woodward plant’s final treatment salmon and other aquatic life.

The agency is also coordinating with the National Science process from a secondary to tertiary (third) level. This will and Technology Council’s Joint Subcommittee on Environment, allow the plant to reach strict discharge limits described by Innovation and Public Health on potential cross-governmental the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan for phosphorus, ammonia and suspended solids, according to local officials. research on human health effects.

Sub-projects at the Woodward plant included electrical sysIn Canada, the University of Saskatchewan has undertaken extensive research with grants from Fisheries and Oceans tem upgrades, a new chlorine contact tank, a new raw sewage Canada worth some $600,000. The researchers studied how pumping station, and collection system control to support wet 6PPD-quinone impacts rainbow trout, arctic char, westslope weather and flooding control initiatives. The new pumping cutthroat trout, lake trout and fathead minnows in Saskatch- station can pump around 1,700 megalitres per day, an increase from the former pumping station’s capacity of 1,300 megalitres. ewan and Alberta.

The project saw $100 million each from the federal governFor more information, email: editor@esemag.com ment and Ontario, with the remainder funded through the City of Hamilton. It is the largest investment in the city’s history.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

56 | December 2023

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

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GRIT ZONE CUTTERS

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LIFT STATION AGITATORS

HydraForce Lift Station Agitators break up layers of FOG (fats, oils and grease), reduce odour, and prevent corrosion and blockages. These mixing systems include a mounted compressor that forces air through tubing lines to a suspended dual-loop diffuser. This diffuser continuously releases air bubbles that rise to the surface, mixing large volumes of water to solve common wastewater issues.

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The CHEM-FEED® MD3 Chemical Feed Pump is equipped with Blue-White’s exclusive Dual Diaphragm Hyperdrive Technology for smooth, near continuous feed, like a peristaltic pump, but with no tube to change. The MD3 is outfitted with DiaFlex® diaphragms, which are designed to last the life of the pump. There is a large 5 " LCD display for easy viewing and intuitive touchscreen controls, plus advanced communication protocols that include 4-20mA, pulse inputs, industrial protocols, and remote start/stop.

Blue-White Industries T: 714-893-8529 F: 714-894-9492 E: info@blue-white.com W: www.blue-white.com October 2023 | 57

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OGS/HYDRODYNAMIC SEPARATOR

The new Stormceptor® EF is an oil grit separator (OGS)/hydrodynamic separator that effectively targets sediment (TSS), free oils, gross pollutants and other pollutants that attach to particles, such as nutrients and metals.

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NETZSCH’s maintenance-friendly Full Service-in-Place (FSIP®) NEMO® progressive cavity pump has a large inspection cover. Open the pump cavity on-site, dismantle all rotating parts and replace them without removing the pump from the pipe assembly. Capacities and pressures are equal to the same size classic NEMO progressing cavity pump – known for continuous, pressure-stable, gentle and low-pulsation conveyance of almost any substance.

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VERTICAL THERMOPLASTIC SUMP PUMPS

Vanton’s vertical thermoplastic sump pumps are engineered for the dependable handling of corrosive, abrasive, and ultra-pure process fluids, plant effluents and wastewater, over broad temperature and pH ranges. Available in polypropylene, PVC, CPVC, or PVDF, these rugged pumps are widely used across various manufacturing industries and water treatment facilities. Every Vanton pump is performance tested to the specified service condition intended.

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PVC FLEXIBLE PRESSURE PIPE

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Vanton Chem-Gard CGM-ANSI magnetically driven end suction pumps are sealless, single-stage process pumps which meet ANSI B73.1 specifications and conform to Hydraulic Institute Standards. All wet-end components are homogenous, injection-molded polypropylene (PP) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), eliminating metal-to-fluid contact, making them ideally suited for handling corrosive, hazardous and ultrapure fluids. Flows to 450 GPM, heads to 180 ft, and temperatures to 225°F. Vanton Pump & Equipment Corporation T: 908-688-4216 F: 908-686-9314 E: mkt@vanton.com W: www.vanton.com

CONTROL CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER OR SOIL GASES

Waterloo Barrier® is a containment wall for the control of contaminated groundwater or soil gases. Formed of steel sheet piling with interlocking joints that are sealed in-place in the ground, the Barrier offers a long service life, exceptionally low hydraulic conductivity, and documentable construction QA/QC. Installation is clean and rapid with minimal site disturbance.

Waterloo Barrier Inc. T: 519-856-1352 E: info@waterloo-barrier.com W: www.waterloo-barrier.com

December 2023 | 59

WASTEWATER

The new Flygt Cloud SCADA system enables monitoring of the overall efficiency of the lift stations.

Lift station upgrades position Manitoba town for future growth

By Richard Phelan

T

he Town of Altona is located 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and 10 kilometres north of the U.S. border.

The town’s public works department operates a collection system that serves nearly 5,000 residents. When two of the four lift stations began experiencing frequent clogging issues a decade ago, the department replaced the existing pumps at lift stations 2 and 3 with Flygt N style impeller conversion kits for each of their pumps.

While these conversions resolved the town’s clogging issues, the public works department knew the lift stations would eventually need to be upgraded to better accommodate Altona’s current population and future growth.

“Stations 2 and 3 were originally designed as one-pump stations back in the 1960s. We installed a duplex system in each in the mid-2000s to keep up with town growth and for redundancy,” 60 | December 2023

said Public Works Manager Clint Derksen. “That setup served us well, but it made maintenance extremely tight and unsafe by current standards. The N style upgrade translated into a huge reduction in callouts, but at the end of the day our hands were once again tied for future growth in those areas. There just wasn’t any room for larger pumps.”

debris. These pumps were key in addressing the stations’ ongoing issues with flow and modern trash. As an added benefit, the flexibility to use the same pump in each station at different flow rates and different total dynamic heads (TDH) was essential to providing a single solution for multiple applications.

Installing Concertor pumps in both lift stations 2 and 3 also meant less spare SOLUTION parts inventory was needed and downTo address the need for upgrades, the time was drastically reduced. public works department worked with The new design also called for replacing the Manitoba Water Services Board, a the existing lift stations with two prepacklocal Manitoba engineering consultant, aged FRP fibreglass stations. This preand Xylem to design a solution that would packaged solution required less on-site be sustainable. Ultimately, the Flygt Con- mechanical labour and design. Because certor packaged system was selected as the town needed two stations, the solution was a cost-effective alternative to the best option for both lift stations.

The design of the Concertor pump, building a standard concrete station. Two which includes a built-in pump reversing 2.43 m x 8.20 m stations were selected.

The addition of automation and conprogram, self-adapts to reduce standard debris issues, such as those created by trols provides the public works departnon-disposables, sand, sludge and other ment with a means to more proactively Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

maintain their assets and optimize energy and performance by gaining better visibility into, and control of, critical operations. The Flygt Cloud SCADA system allows operations and maintenance staff to review both real-time performance and historical performance, complete with trending analysis.

Market leader in system integration SCADA | Design | Programming Automation Solutions www.SummaEng.com

RESULTS

Completing the upgrades to lift stations 2 and 3 has provided numerous, immediate benefits in operating costs, efficiencies and the reduction of additional maintenance costs. Since installation of the Concertor pumps, the lift stations have not experienced any clogs.

“Our old pumps experienced clogging,” said Derksen. “In the two years that we’ve had the Concertor pumps, we have not needed to pull one yet to unclog.

The SCADA has recorded instances that the pump is running less efficiently, but the Concertor is smart enough that it reverses itself and either spits out or shreds whatever is causing the issue and carries on like normal, without a callout.

We don’t have a huge staff so we can’t afford to spend our time pulling equipment just for a clog.”

Derksen added that the layout of the new fibreglass lift stations provides more visibility, which enables easier service and safer working conditions, due to the mid-level floor, isolation valves and userfriendly layout.

Additionally, the glossy white NPG gelcoat interior and LED lighting provide a brighter station to view any concerns from the surface. The gelcoat finish also provides a cleaner station with very little debris sticking to the walls.

With the installation of the new Flygt Cloud SCADA system, the public works department can reap the benefits of the information provided, including monitoring the overall efficiency of the lift stations.

Delivering clean water solutions for 60 years

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Richard Phelan is with Xylem.

For more information, visit: www.xylem.com/flygt or contact Jennifer Cisneros at jennifer.cisneros@xylem.com

www.esemag.com @ESEMAG

December 2023 | 61

Advertiser INDEX

WASTEWATER

Get listed in ES&E Magazine’s

Water fleas hailed as latest wastewater treatment technology in new study

Register your company at esemag.com/get-listed

By ES&E Staff

Consultants, Products & Services Guide

COMPANY

PAGE

ACG-Envirocan................................................63 ACO Systems....................................................48 Aerzen Canada................................................27 Alberta Water & Wastewater Operators Association.......................................................31 Aquatic Aeration Solutions.........................28 Asahi/America................................................... 9 Associated Engineering...............................34 BARR Plastics...................................................13 Blue-White.......................................................... 7 Boerger..............................................................40 Cancoppas.......................................................... 3 CANECT 2024...................................................29 CB Shield...........................................................11 Contech Engineered Solutions..................64 Corrosion Probe, Inc.....................................39 Ducks Unlimited Canada.............................33 Halogen Valve Systems................................26 Harmsco............................................................21 IPEX....................................................................... 2 MWWA................................................................42 NETZSCH Canada...........................................37 Pro Aqua.............................................................. 5 REGENESIS.......................................................41 SEW-Eurodrive................................................38 SPD Sales..........................................................35 Vanton Pump & Equipment........................17 VEGA Canada...................................................15 York Fluid..........................................................21 62 | December 2023

W

ater fleas, most of which average less than five millimetres in length, could play a new role as chemical pollutant vacuum cleaners for wastewater, says a University of Birmingham study in the U.K. Scientists say the Daphniid species can remain dormant for centuries, allowing scientists to “revive dormant populations that endured varying historical pollution pressures.” Researchers could then source strains from water flea embryos with “diverse tolerances to chemical pollutants,” and incorporate the tiny crustaceans into scalable, low-cost, low-carbon, and retrofittable nature-inspired tertiary treatment technology for municipal wastewater.

Researchers utilized four Daphnia strains of different ages, spanning a century, to target the removal of four particularly problematic pollutants: the pharmaceutical compound diclofenac; the pesticide atrazine; the heavy metal arsenic; and the industrial chemical perfluorooctane sulfonate, better known as PFOS. While the water fleas’ lab removal rates for diclofenac hit 90%, the other pollutants were removed in the range of 50 to 60%. The removal efficiency of PFOS and diclofenac in individual chemical exposures varied significantly by Daphnia genotype, the study found, and chemicals removed were not excreted back into the water.

“Our profound understanding of water flea biology enabled us to pioneer a nature-inspired tertiary wastewater treatment technology,” announced senior study author and professor Luisa Orsini, from the University of Birmingham, in a statement. “This refines municipal wastewater effluent and safeguards the ecological health of our rivers,” she added.

Study co-author and University of Birmingham School of Engineering profes-

Scientists say the Daphniid species can remain dormant for centuries, allowing scientists to “revive dormant populations that endured varying historical pollution pressures.”

Credit: Vera Kuttelvaserova, stock.adobe.com

sor, Karl Dean, says their team installed carefully selected water fleas into custom containment devices to refine effluent before its final release. The vessels consisted of a solid frame and a porous mesh that allowed for the movement of water, while retaining the live water flea population and allowing for the collection of dead fleas at the base of the vessel.

“Once in place, our technology largely maintains itself, attributed to the water fleas’ clonal reproduction capability,” Dean said in a statement.

Published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, the study suggests the low-carbon footprint of the water flea technology, combined with prevention of pollution of surface water, “provides a practical solution to meet increasingly stringent regulations.”

The study’s primary authors are also part of a start-up company which aims to commercialize the Daphnia-based technology.

For more information, email: editor@esemag.com

Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine

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