The use of wastewater recycling is about to take the global stage as a means of averting what some experts call a "freshwater disaster" in the next 25 years. And Canada will likely play a leading role.
Within the City of Yellowknife and elsewhere in the Canadian North, the climate, surficial bedrock, permafrost and soil conditions pose special problems for land development. The use of conventional water and sewer servicing technology with freeze protection adds significantly to the cost of land development. In consideration that about 55% or 10,000 litres of the water used in a typical Yellowknife household each month goes to the toilet or the laundry, there is substantial opportunity to save money on water use by treating it, and recycling it for the same use. The unit processes of the on-site waste water recycling system include a septic tank for primary treatment, a bio-filter followed by a slow sand filter for secondary treatment, and ozonation for disinfection of the water before it is reused. "Reprinted from the September 2001 edition of The PEGG, the newspaper of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta, with permission." Complete technical paper on wastewater recycling - CRYOFRONT Volume 3, Number 4 More on Cold Region Engineering |
