City of Edmonton’s water reuse facility delivers recycled water to its first industrial customer

Membrane filter cartridge

With more than one million people in the City and an increasing number of businesses moving into the area, demand for clean water in the Edmonton region continues to grow, as does concerns for water quality in the North Saskatchewan River. A number of industries in the City are facing increased water needs. In addition, Alberta Environment is balancing water allocation and licenses to withdraw water, with the need for responsible watershed protection.

Responding to these needs, the City of Edmonton and Petro Canada embarked on a project to explore the potential for reuse of treated wastewater, demonstrating their leadership in innovation and commitment to sustainability. Petro Canada and the City of Edmonton initiated a project to produce high quality water from treated effluent from the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. Originally constructed in 1956, the City of Edmonton’s Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant treats wastewater from 700,000 in the greater Edmonton area. Over the years, the plant has undergone a number of plant expansions, upgrades, and improvements. Currently the plant provides tertiary treatment using the biological nutrient removal process and has a treatment capacity of 310 million litres per day.

Working with Petro Canada and the City, Associated Engineering completed a feasibility study and conceptual design, which showed that wastewater effluent could be treated to the quality required for reuse. The City then retained Associated Engineering as prime consultants for the preliminary and detailed design and construction administration of a membrane-based treatment facility. Effluent from Secondary Clarifiers 9, 10 or 11 feeds into the reuse facility.

The City selected Zenon 500 Series membranes for the reuse facility. High quality water from the reuse facility will be pumped from a new 800 cubic metre equalization storage tank into a transmission line to Petro-Canada, the City’s first industrial customer.

Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant

The $14 million facility is located adjacent to new biological nutrient removal upgrades, Bioreactor and Clarifier #11. Construction was staged, integrating the bioreactor and clarifier construction contract with the membrane facility design to achieve the desired completion date. The City awarded the superstructure and equipment installation contract in May 2005, and start up and commissioning of Canada's largest membrane-based water reuse facility were completed in December 2005.

Transmission of recycled water to Petro Canada begins in May 2006. Initial production of 5 million litres per day will increase to 15 million litres per day by the end of 2007. Ultimately the facility will be capable of producing 40 million litres per day of water.

Petro-Canada will use the treated effluent as feedstock for its demineralization process and ultimately as process water. The City of Edmonton’s parks and the local ski hill snow making system also make use of the recycled water. This project is the first step in providing high quality reuse water as an alternative to water from the North Saskatchewan River.

Associated Engineering staff involved on the project include Steve Croxford, Cameron Braun, Pat Given, Colin Madden, Mick McGregor, Leo Panciroli, Richard Watson, David Wei, Jennifer Willis, and Jiansong Wu. In addition, Magna IV and UMA provided subconsultant services.