June 2018 Pipeline

More documents

Recommendations

Info

It’s in the Bag In 2006, the Swift Current Wastewater Treatment Plant opened its gates for the first time. It was one of many new plants popping up in western Canada in an effort to keep up with the growing demand to discharge less effluent water into Saskatchewan water bodies. In the twelve years since, the plant has operated extremely well and the efficiency of the process has provided excellent results in its final effluent. As in many processes, the first few years was a bit of a learning curve. None of the operators at the plant had even been in a wastewater facility, let alone run one. Using a general framework set out by Engineers at Stantec Ltd, and relying on advice from others in the industry, the staff managed to optimize the process and in some cases, improve on the original design to make it specific to Swift Current’s needs. The process was designed with, and currently operates with, preliminary treatment in the form of screenings and grit removal, secondary biological treatment, and tertiary treatment in the form of ultraviolet light disinfection. The glitch in the matrix was this: Swift Current never had a plan for disposal of dewatered sludge. This was and continues to be a hot topic of discussion throughout the wastewater industry. For the first few years, the City of Swift Current’s method of disposal was to truck the dewatered sludge to the landfill on the east side of the city. The plan was simple, but there were few issues and no adverse effects … until the summer of 2009. The piles of sludge had formed a crust, and in <strong>June</strong> the crust began to crack apart releasing some trapped gasses within the sludge piles. This was coupled by a rare easterly wind that pushed the odor towards the city instead of away from it. Let the fallout begin. This series of events brought a foul odor as well as a major insect problem to the eastern half of the city. The dewatering portion of the process was halted immediately and the wasted sludge from the treatment process was pumped to the nearby lagoon instead. The SCWWTP wastes approximately 75 m3 of sludge from its process every day, however, the WWTP was built with the redundancy wherein the lagoon could act as a temporary sludge storage area if the centrifuge was undergoing service or out of operation. With all of this new sludge being directed to the lagoon system, a new disposal method was necessary. Over the course of the following 7 years, there were many options discussed and considered. A lagoon assessment was completed by Sask Alta in 2012 and a cross section was provided as to the areas of concern within the lagoon. The City of Swift Current contacted several different contractors for disposal options, and even went so far as to employ Stantec Ltd to get a short and long term solution to the task at hand. After much deliberation, the Environmental Services Division decided to employ GeoTube technology. “Geotubes® are a semi-permeable geo water in the sludge to escape while lea inside. They very effectively dry and co sludges (both municipal an www.lambourne.ca/what-we-do/lago A desludging company from British Columbia, Lambourne Environmental, was approached to provide their expertise in assisting the City of Swift Current. An initial lagoon survey was completed in August of 2017, this one not as comprehensive as the one in 2012. This was because the area of concern was the western side of a primary lagoon, and not the lagoon system in its entirety. Once the survey was complete, a sludge sample was
taken to ensure the proper polymer would be selected to optimize the dewatering process once it had begun. As the sludge is being dredged from the lagoon bottom, an environmentally friendly polymer is added prior to the Geotube to promote sludge thickening. In this case, there were 2850 kg’s of a cationic ‘CA475’ polymer used. After all the preliminary groundwork was done, it was time to get the process underway. -textile tube that allows the ving the biosolids trapped solidate biosolids, silts, and d industrial).” - on-desludging/dewatering/ The dewatering crew was scheduled to be on site in late September. This gave City staff ample time to prepare a detailed ‘laydown area’ for the Geotubes. A location was chosen directly west of the lagoon bank, between the lagoon cell and the SC Creek. The laydown area was bladed to the proper grade to allow drainage of the decanted water, and the City crews were careful to build a berm around the perimeter so as not to allow any of the water to mistakenly run into the creek. To ensure there wouldn’t be
Page 1: Summer 2018 ~ 17th Edition SASKATCH
Page 4 and 5: KELLY’S CORNER Don’t Stop belie
Page 6 and 7: PROVEN THROUGH PERFORMANCE Kayden I
Page 8 and 9: Mission is Simply More Intelligent
Page 12 and 13: weeks, the WWTP Operators continued
Page 14 and 15: LISA VAN ELSAKKER Sales Representat
Page 16 and 17: Mid Continental Pump Supply Ltd. Pu
Page 18 and 19: Keith MacCharles Email: keith@airma
Page 20 and 21: Regional/Contract (R/C) Operator Pr
Page 22 and 23: Through the Clean Water For Schools
Page 24 and 25: WaterAid/Sibtain Haider Zakir is 10
Page 26: The children were told how often yo
Page 29 and 30: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER Pumps, con
Page 33 and 34: The Operator Certification Board
Page 35: Golf2018 SWWA 2018 Golf Tournament
Page 41 and 42: Easy as... 1 to access your account
Page 43 and 44: s Saskatchewan government cracking
Page 45 and 46: MEMBER PROFILE DERRICK HOEHN Senior

June 2018 Pipeline

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?