Paul Morden, The Sarnia Observer- February 28, 2015
The design for a $16.6-million upgrading project underway at the Grand Bend sewage treatment plant is receiving international attention.
The Washington-based Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) has announced the project earned its Envision rating system’s platinum award. It’s the first Canadian project, and first waste water facility in North America, to be verified using the assessment system that is a collaboration between the institute and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Lambton Shores Mayor Bill Weber.
“It shows our commitment to keeping the Great Lakes clean and do it sustainably.”
The joint upgrading project is being carried out by Lambton Shores and neighbouring municipality South Huron, with help from the Build Canada fund.
“We’re hoping it will be operational by the end of the year,” Weber said.
The municipalities hired the design firm Stantec to concert one of four existing lagoons at the waste water treatment facility into an extended aeration mechanical treatment facility and wetland nature reserve.
It will prevent discharges from adversely impacting surface and groundwater quality, while allowing community development.
Stantec used the ISI Envision framework during the design to integrate sustainable features through the facility.
A constructed wetland to support native wildlife species, and further buffer-treat effluent, is one of its key features.
There is also a flexible design that makes the facility responsive to changing sewage flows, as well as reduced construction and operating costs.
Trails and interpretive signs will be part of the wetland project, to encourage visitors, including school groups, and the site is intended to restore habitat critical to threatened native species, including the Monarch bufferfly, snapping turtle and bobolink.
“It’s clean water coming out of there and it’s being filtered through a wetland to give it that little polish before it goes back to the lakes,” Weber said.
Tall grass prairie will also be restored on the site, and the project team is negotiating an agreement with a local university to allow graduate students to conduct long-term academic studies on waste water quality.
The project is designed to address projected changes in population and service area growth in the communities, as well as increases in the frequency and severity of extreme rainfall in southern Ontario.
“Stantec is very proud of this first-ever ISI Envision verified project in Canada,” said company project manager Elvio Zaghi.
“The Grand Bend Area WWTF (waste water treatment facility) will protect the shoreline waters of Lake Huron, the area’s most important natural and recreational asset.”
Other key features of the facility include odour control measures, and a flexible design for the facility so that it can be reconfigured and expanded to meet new demands.
The Envision system measures the sustainability of infrastructure projects through the measurement of categories that include quality of life, leadership, natural world, resource allocation, and climate and risk.
The Stantec project team and the municipalities “made significant public commitments to the principles of sustainability,” institute president William Bertera said in a press release.
“They involved the community on key project issues and concerns, and made design choices to reduce negative impacts.”
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