With over 1.4 million people, the Region of Peel in southern Ontario is a thriving municipality. With waterfront parks on Lake Ontario, and proximity to major highways as well as Toronto Pearson International Airport, the Region’s municipalities of Brampton, Mississauga, and Caledon are sought-after communities to live and work.
The Region manages wastewater and stormwater systems for the municipalities. Several existing wastewater and stormwater pump stations required upgrades to meet current standards and future requirements, and to improve accessibility for operations staff. The Region retained Associated Engineering to provide engineering services for detailed design and contract administration of five pump stations upgrades in Mississauga and Brampton: the Lakelands, Castlemore, and McVean wastewater pumping stations and the Finch and Malton Four Corners stormwater pumping stations. The rated capacity of the stations ranged from 19 to 1,494 litres per second.
“Recently, there was a large flood event in the area around the Malton Four Corners Stormwater Pumping Station that highlighted the need to improve protection of equipment and address health and safety concerns.”
- Manager of Water Resource Recovery, Suzanne Boyd
The upgrades include emergency storage in case of a power outage, electrical improvements, and inlet grinders at the wastewater pumping stations. A new emergency generator was added at the Malton Four Corners Stormwater Pumping Station. Access was also improved and permeable pavement was installed to reduce surface run-off. With the potential risk of more extreme weather events, the design team considered climate change and adaptation measures. For example, new emergency storage at Castlemore, Lakelands, and McVean will reduce the risk of basement flooding and overflows. Also, new wet and dry wells at the Malton Four Corners Pump Station are designed to improve access and reduce health and safety concerns to minimize risk of flooding.
“The Malton Station is located within the floodplain; therefore, all new structures were designed to accommodate the 100-year flood elevation. We provided raised hatches to protect process equipment and raised electrical panels to be above the flood elevation.” - Project Manager, Ed Salenieks
The Lakelands Wastewater Pumping Station is located in a residential neighbourhood. Design Lead and Contract Administrator, Paula Steel, says, “The development is in an area with poor soils and a high water table. We had to investigate and evaluate various options to determine the best solution for the addition of two-hour emergency storage, such as in-line storage by means of microtunneling, and construction of an off-site storage tank. The project is currently underway, with phase one in construction and phase two in design.