[All] Biosolid masterplan in the news: KW Record article

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Baked sewage is in our futureSludge Brad Madore of Graham Construction walks past the Manitou Drive sewage treatment facility in Kitchener.Peter Lee/Record staffWATERLOO REGION — Regional council is floating an updated $100-million plan to dispose of what we flush down the toilet.

We’re going to treat it, spin it to dry it and then bake it at up to 175 degrees C. This will enable us to put it on fields, bury it in a dump, burn it as fuel or maybe even sell it as fertilizer. Along the way we’re going to draw energy from it.

“We feel it’s the best plan for us,” said Thomas Schmidt, regional environment commissioner. “It provides us a number of options in how we move forward.”

Sewage treatment plants produce almost 13,000 tonnes of sludge from waste that collects annually at 13 regional facilities. Some treated sludge is applied to farmers’ fields. Some is carted to a landfill out of town. It all fills more than 6,000 truckloads. Facilities are already in place or under construction to dry sludge by spinning it around.

The latest proposal is to: 

• Install engines to co-generate electricity and heat from the gases released during sewage treatment. Power sales would help offset up to 70 per cent of treatment costs. Engines would begin operating between 2017 and 2024 in Kitchener, Waterloo and Galt.

• Install a central oven to bake sludge that’s already been treated and dried. It would produce an odourless hard pellet that can be applied to fields, burned in cement kilns or incinerators, buried in a landfill or possibly sold as fertilizer. The oven would begin operating by 2022.

If the proposed oven is built at the regional landfill in west Waterloo, it could use heat that’s currently wasted when landfill gases are burned to generate electricity.

The long-term plan for sewage sludge is out for public review until Sept. 27. Pending final approval it’s meant to be in place until 2041. Proponents say it will produce a better-quality, lower-volume sludge that may not need to be applied to fields, a disposal method criticized by some. They see financial and environmental advantages to recovering energy during treatment. They feel the plan can adapt to new technologies and regulations.

Costs would be built into water rates. The rates may not increase faster than currently planned, Schmidt said. Between 2007 and 2010, the average residential water bill soared 54 per cent, reaching $785 a year as part of a long-term plan to upgrade water and sewer services.

Politicians intend to continue hiking rates. Planners started updating the sewage plan last year, guided by input from residents, businesses and experts. Six open houses for public input drew 26 people. For more information and to offer comments go to www.regionofwaterloo.ca and search for biosolids master plan. 

jouthit at therecord.com
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