August 28, 2008

Population growth has impacted on the need to update and upgrade water facilities at a rapid pace in the Orangeville area. Enhanced filtration technology will be among the latest advances deployed during the plant’s expansion.

Orangeville Treatment Capacity

Keeping pace with community growth

DAN PELTON

correspondent

ORANGEVILLE, ON

North of Toronto there is an area where quaint, meandering rivers wind through, providing a pretty picture for potential tourists to the Headwaters region.

It also presents a potential headache for those involved in wastewater treatment, because the treated effluent from Orangeville is emptied into the nearby Credit River, where the stream flows are below those farther south.

Since the buzz phrase in sewage treatment circles is “dilution is the solution to pollution,” effluent discharged into smaller areas with less water is prone to cause more damage.

The Greater Toronto Area has the luxury of being next to a Great Lake and is spared such problems.

“When you’re drawing water from Lake Ontario and discharging effluent into it, you are really only constrained by the size of your pumps and your pipes,” says Doug Jones, Orangeville’s managing director of environmental and development services.

“The issue in Orangeville is that we’re headwaters country.”

With a population of 29,000 and growing, an expanded and more efficient wastewater treatment plant for the town is crucial.

Currently, the Orangeville sewage treatment has a rated capacity of 14,400 cubic metres (m3) of sewage per day at full capacity.

There is an average daily flow of 12,993 m3, and a further 846 m3 has been committed to development projects currently in development, which leaves just 560 m3 of “uncommitted reserve capacity.”

The town’s public works department conservatively estimates that is enough for just 400 residential units. A tricky predicament when it is estimated Orangeville could take on as many as 7,000 new residents over the next five to 10 years.

However, 2011 seems to be the earliest date the town can hope to have an expanded treatment plant on line. “In a perfect world, my sense of it is that we should have an approved environmental assessment some time in 2009,” says Jones. “After that, we would proceed with detailed design and construction, which could move ahead in 2010.”

Meanwhile, Orangeville is working on plant modifications presently needed. “There are two areas we need to focus on right now,” says public works director Jack Tupling. “The first is the head works, or the primary treatment part of the process. The second place where we need to make improvements is in the tertiary filters.”

A public works department study done three years ago determined the cost of the upgrades to be in the neighborhood of $8 million, a price which no doubt has since increased.

“The cost of this work is significant,” admits Tupling, “but I throw back to you that you’re not driving the same car you were in 1967. Like cars, equipment gets worn out and it becomes more difficult. It needs to be replaced. The cost of replacing it is going to be expensive. That’s a fact of life.”

The head works, which were initially installed in the late 1960s, are in need of an upgrade to begin the plant’s treatment process.

The other area of immediate concern are the tertiary filters, which are the sand filters that remove most of the solid material that hasn’t been taken out during the earlier steps in the treatment process.

To enhance the filtration part of the process, Orangeville will consider the latest technology options, such as membrane filtration, as opposed to adding more of the gravity sand filters it has now.

When the plant expansion does come to fruition, Tupling says it is likely it will incorporate a chlorination and de-chlorination system to disinfect the effluent, despite arguments the more modern method of abstracting contaminants with ultraviolet light is more environmentally sound.

Tupling insists Orangeville will always look to new methodology and ideas when it comes to wastewater treatment. “We don’t bury our heads in the sand when it comes to new technology. If there is something new out there that has proven it can improve the longevity and performance of the facility, we are certainly going to look at it.”

Print | Email | Comment