RIVERVIEW, N.B. – The Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission (GMSC) is pleased to announce that CBCL Limited has been awarded a $350,000 contract for the pre-design and costing of the biological nutrient removal plant proposed to meet new federal effluent regulations. CBCL Limited is a leading multidisciplinary engineering and environmental consulting firm in Atlantic Canada. Founded in 1955, the company employs more than 300 people in nine regional offices, including Moncton.
“Commission staff have been working diligently over the past few years at establishing how to best improve the quality of its effluent to the Petitcodiac River,” said Winston Pearce, Commission Chair. “We were very impressed by the quality of the proposals and presentations by interested consultants and believe that our selected partner, CBCL Limited, with their breadth of Atlantic Canadian wastewater treatment expertise, can best complement the Commission’s resources in achieving the targeted results in a cost-efficient and timely manner.”
New Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER-2012) under the Fisheries Act were enacted in June 2012 to deliver on the federal government’s commitment in the 2009 Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Canada-Wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater Effluent (“CCME Strategy”).The CCME Strategy represents a collective agreement to ensure that wastewater effluent is managed under a harmonized framework that is protective of the environment and human health.
Over the last three years, the Commission has developed its Long-term Sustainable Wastewater Collection and Treatment Strategy (“GMSC Strategy”) and has devoted extensive efforts at characterizing the wastewater and developing an advanced biological process through use of a pilot plant model.
In November 2013, the Commission issued a request for proposals (RFP) aimed at completing the pre-design of the biological treatment along with associated processes as a first phase and proceeding to detail design based on the outcome of the pre-design and subject to the procurement/funding approach chosen for implementation.
The Commission is committed to meeting or exceeding the national performance standards in accordance with the CCME Strategy and the new federal regulations. The Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF), an advanced chemically assisted primary treatment process, needs to be upgraded to secondary treatment to meet Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER) by 2020. In addition, the Commission desires to be in a position to easily adapt to and economically meet any possible future more stringent effluent requirements related to nitrogen or phosphorus.
This strategy will involve upgrading the preliminary treatment building, retrofitting existing clarifiers and constructing new bioreactors for advanced biological treatment, as well as incorporating ultraviolet disinfection of effluent.
The Commission’s intent is to first quantify the cost of this major investment – currently estimated to be in the $60-$65 million range – and then work with all levels of government to ensure that this undertaking can be delivered in a cost-efficient manner for the benefit of all municipal ratepayers through participation in a jointly funded federal-provincial infrastructure program.
The Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission was established in 1983 to support the wastewater collection and treatment needs of the Dieppe, Moncton and Riverview tri-community. Since then, it has developed a 30-kilometre collection network and a treatment facility to best deliver on this mandate. It has also become a leader in the reuse of biosolids through the generation of type “AA” compost (the highest grade currently achieved in Canada) as opposed to disposal in a landfill site. The organization is now positioning itself to further upgrade its facilities to provide an enhanced secondary treatment approach that will allow it to meet recently introduced mandatory federal regulations prior to the 2020 deadline.
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Media contact:
Winston Pearce, P.Eng.
Chair
Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission
506-381-0899