This week two Canadian wastewater treatment plants celebrated completion.
In Calgary, the new $430-million Pine Creek Wastewater Treatment Centre was officially opened by Mayor Dave Bronconnier. The plant gives the City the core infrastructure it needs to make future expansion possible for a population of up to 1.75 million people. Pine Creek joins Calgary’s two other wastewater treatment plants (Bonnybrook and Fish Creek) in using some of the most advanced wastewater treatment technology to clean our wastewater before returning it to the Bow River.
The plant can treat up to 100 million litres of wastewater per day, enough to fill the Calgary Tower four times. When fully expanded in the decades to come, this facility will be able to treat up to 700 million litres of wastewater per day—enough to fill the Saddledome more than two times.
“A great deal of thought and planning went into the construction of this plant,” said Jim Miller, infrastructure delivery manager for Water Services. “It has a number of architectural controls that reduce our impact on the environment including a wildlife corridor to the Bow River, the utilization of wind power to power the plant and 5,500 square metres of green roofs.”
The Fort McMurray Waste Water Treatment Facility (WWTF) also opened. This $225-million facility was built to LEED Silver certification standards. Average capacity for the WWTF will see 52-million litres of sewage flow through the facility with a maximum capacity of 125 million litres.The facility is designed to accommodate a population of 133,000 people. The construction project was separated into three phases, with the current structure being phase two. A future phase three will provide additional process back-up for the current design’s population.
