June 2006 ISSUE
THE SUMMIT SERIES
Water Recycling System is an Alberta First
The City of Edmonton and a willing industrial partner, Petro-Canada, have teamed up to recycle water — and, while they’re at it, reduce demand on the North Saskatchewan River.
Editor’s Note: The following article highlights the winner of the 2006 Project Achievement Award, presented in April at the Summit Awards Gala in Edmonton. The PEGG will run stories on all the Summit winners.
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WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE |
BY FRANCINE MAXWELL
Editorial Assistant
About a decade ago, the City of Edmonton began looking for ways to cope with
an ever-increasing demand for the North Saskatchewan River’s water. What
the city didn’t know then is that one of its strategies would make it Alberta’s
first recycler of water for industrial use.
Working as a team, the city and Petro-Canada found a way to treat wastewater in a specialized plant and then pipe it as far as Strathcona County. Their efforts earned the two APEGGA permit holders the 2006 Project Achievement Summit Award.
The water is not potable, so it will be used primarily for industry. But it does have applications for water conservation in recreation, too.
The treatment occurs at the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant, which was outfitted with the necessary membrane treatment capabilities in 2005. It took about $13 million to upgrade the existing plant for the new technology.
Ice Cubes and Straws
Chris Ward, P.Eng., the city’s water line project manager, likens the process
to something we all do on the patio on a hot summer’s day. “If you
picture a glass with ice cubes and a straw, and you drink the liquid through
the straw, you’re left with the ice cubes. Essen-tially that’s what
the process does: it removes the liquid and leaves behind microscopic particles.”
Mr. Ward says that while no regulations demand membrane technology — in fact it isn’t widely used — the extra filtration step may save millions of litres of water by making recycled water available to industry.
But which industry? Enter Petro-Canada.
Its part in the project is to give the recycled water an end-use, as well as provide a delivery system to its refinery outside of Edmonton. While the city had the idea, it had no one to share it with until Petro-Canada came calling.
The company had a practical reason for doing so. New federal regulations stemming from sulphur emission reductions required upgrades and additional water.
The simple answer would be to pull more water from the North Saskatchewan.
Instead, however, the company approached the city. Petro-Canada even funded the
project and agreed to build the pipeline to the Strathcona County refinery, as
well as ensure that the pipeline met all environmental standards.
This presented some challenges, as the pipeline runs through two city parks and
one provincial park — all of which have their own environmental interests.
The pipeline is buried for the most part to lessen its impact on the parks, and
some sections of it run under existing bridges.
Where the Water Goes
For now, the refinery uses some five megalitres of the recycled water a day.
The goal is to reach up to 20 megalitres a day. That would be the equivalent
of 20 million, one-litre bottles of water, or enough to fill eight Olympic swimming
pools.
The refinery won’t be the only user. Strathcona County will manage additional water customers, such as the local Nordic Ski Club. It will use the water to aid in making snow. The recycled water will also be used to provide water to adjacent parks in the City of Edmonton.
Standpipes will be built onto the existing pipeline to draw water to these
extra destinations.
It all sounds brilliant — and transferable. The award-winning project has,
in fact, captured the attention of other Alberta cities looking for ways to conserve
water.
“Other cities have called and asked what’s going on,” says Mr. Ward. “However, the cost to build and operate a treatment plant like ours is a bit prohibitive.”
That might not always be a problem, however. Ed Wittstock, P.Eng., the project manager from Petro-Canada, says that he expects other industries to look into the water-saving method, particularly in the Edmonton area.
“As time goes on, there will be more demand for water from refineries, so I expect other industries to look into what we are trying and approach the city themselves.”
In the meantime, both Mr. Wittstock and Mr. Ward are elated and proud that their project broke ground on the concept — and received the Project Achievement Award by APEGGA.
“We were very pleased to have won. Part of our responsibility to the environment we have is water protection, conservation and recycling. We were very proud to have been recognized by APEGGA for that,” said Mr. Wittstock.
The Project Achievement Award is presented to a project demonstrating engineering, geological or geophysical skills, and representing a substantial contribution to technical progress and the betterment of society. APEGGA will give credit to the firms and people in key roles in completing the project.
HOW TO NOMINATE
Do you know of people or projects worthy of a Summit Award?
Visit http://www.apegga.org/members/ScholarshipsAwards/toc_summit.html for
more information.
PARTICIPANTS
Also involved in making this project a reality were
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Associated Engineering Ltd., facility design
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Sure-Form Construction Ltd., facility construction
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Zenon Environmental Inc., membrane system supplier
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Bel-MK Engineering Ltd., pipeline design
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Ledcor Pipelines, pipeline construction.