Located
on the North Saskatchewan River, the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment
Plant is Edmonton’s sole wastewater treatment facility.
The Gold Bar facility, which began operation in 1956 has been
a leader through much of its history. In 1998, the plant installed
Ultra Violet (UV) disinfection and at the time, its high intensity,
medium pressure UV system was the largest application of its
kind in the world. It has consistently ranked as one of Canada’s
top wastewater facilities from the standpoint of effluent
quality and a recently completed upgrade to tertiary level
treatment means an even higher quality effluent is now produced.
Gold Bar made the transition to
tertiary treatment when it upgraded the plant to include a
bio nutrient removal process called BNR in December of 2001.
The BNR process originated out of South Africa and was the
brainchild of Dr. James Barnard, brother of the famous heart
transplant pioneer, Dr. Christian Barnard. It works by a complex
manipulation of wastewater bacteria within carefully controlled
environments known as "bioreactors", variously depriving
and then feasting them on air. Known as Bio-P bacteria, they
are specially targeted for removing phosphorus and ammonia-nitrogen,
the two nutrients most plentiful in domestic wastewater. The
plant opted for this technology over the more traditional
chemical phosphorus removal despite the challenges in adapting
it to a northern climate, because it complemented the natural
treatment processes that have long been the plant’s trademark.
Research & training
at Edmonton’s Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant
Construction has begun on the new
Wastewater Research and Training Centre at the Gold Bar Wastewater
Treatment Plant. As part of the City’s Waste Management
Centre of Excellence, it will provide state-of- the-art facilities
for research, development and testing of new technologies
for improving wastewater treatment.
The centre is funded through the
Infrastructure Canada-Alberta Prog-ram (ICAP) at a total cost
of $3.65 million. It will be the first of its kind in North
America and will include classrooms, a lecture theatre and
a sophisticated pilot plant and laboratory.
When the centre is complete researchers
will have unprecedented opportunities to conduct a wide range
of projects at a leading-edge treatment plant. The centre’s
educational facilities and partnerships with the academic
and business community will allow it to provide and participate
in a variety of workshops and conferences.
The centre will enhance the City’s
ability to protect the environment and adapt to new environmental
standards. It will also help identify more efficient means
of treating waste. It is also expected to attract investment,
business and training specialists to Edmonton.
Partners in the Centre of Excellence
include AMEC, the Alberta Research Council, University of
Alberta, NAIT and Olds College. |
