Utilities Kingston has announced a four-year, $88-million expansion and upgrade of the Cataraqui Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant to increase plant capacity, improve the quality of treated wastewater it discharges, and upgrade equipment.

“By ensuring the reliability of wastewater services and helping to protect Lake Ontario, this project will benefit the community today and generations to come,” said Jim Keech, president and CEO of Utilities Kingston. He notes that the upgrades were identified as a City of Kingston priority in the 2010 Sewage Infrastructure Master Plan. The planned project is the largest in the four-year municipal utility capital budgets for 2015-2018, as approved by Kingston’s city council. It’s funded through utility rates and impost funds.

The west-end plant was constructed in 1962 and went through its last major upgrade in 2002.

The project work will be done for Utilities Kingston by North America Construction (1993) Ltd. (NAC), which submitted the lowest bid for the tender. Work will begin with the construction of the secondary treatment system and dewatering facility, then move on to the expansion of the primary treatment facility.

The upgrade will increase the plant’s capacity from 38,800 to 55,000 cubic meters per day to meet projected population growth.

These needed upgrades will result in a treatment process similar to the one at Ravensview Wastewater Treatment Facility, one of North America’s most environmentally progressive plants. It will improve the quality of outgoing treated wastewater by incorporating Biostyr. The Biostyr and Biostyr-Duo processes combine the biological treatment and filtration of wastewater into one system that removes ammonia, along with most dissolved contaminants and solids. This will improve the quality of treated wastewater that is discharged to Lake Ontario in the form of natural resource quality water.

Biostyr is a biofilter produced by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies. The Biostyr combines into a single structure a biological reactor and a physical filter that stores biomass and stops particulate pollution and can be adapted for carbon removal, nitrification, nitrification/denitrification, or post-dentrification.

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