Sludge Watch ==> London Ontario - Sludge Membrane Technology May Save $20M

[Maureen Reilly]

Hi-tech may save city $80M for plant

Thu, March 27, 2008

The pollution control job could be done by a filtering system for as little 
as $20M.

By JONATHAN SHER, SUN MEDIA


Londoners could be off the hook for $60 million the next decade thanks to 
technology that could delay the need for a costly pollution control plant.

Until recently, city hall staff thought the city needed to build a 
$80-million plant in the south end to accommodate growth the next 20 years 
-- budget books forecast it being built by 2016.

But an innovative filtering system that resembles strands of metres-long 
spaghetti may do the job for $20 million to $30 million.

"You can defer the Southside pollution control plant -- that's a good thing 
for taxpayers," Ron Standish, the city's director of waste water and 
treatment, said yesterday.

The technology -- called a membrane -- is already being installed in one of 
the city's smaller plants and could be placed in the behemoth that now 
handles more than half the city's sewage, Greenway pollution control plant.




The Greenway plant can handle 33 million gallons of waste water a day and 
the membrane technology should add another four million gallons capacity.

"It's workable," Standish said.

Sewage pipes along Gordon Avenue that lead to the plant would also need to 
be improved, but at a cost of about $1.5 million, that's drops in the waste 
water bucket compared to a new plant whose expense nearly doubles that of 
the John Labatt Centre.

Taxpayers aren't the only ones who stand to benefit.

The new technology would roughly double the amount of land that could be 
serviced for development between Lambeth and London -- as much as 30 per 
cent would become available.

Since servicing could be produced at a lower cost, developers could see 
costs diminish, too -- though it's too soon to know.

The Greenway plant now relies on chemicals and gravity to separate solids 
from liquids in concrete pools that receive the city's waste water.

The new technology speeds and makes more complete that separation -- the 
strands, hollow in the middle like straws, suck water through microscopic 
slits, leaving solid waste behind.

The technology isn't the only factor leading to a rosier assessment of how 
much land could be developed:

- Water use in London has grown more slowly than the city's population.

- Revised projections showing London growing less in the next 20 years than 
had been forecast. Since Greenway serves much of the city, that means less 
demand on that facility.

City engineers have to conduct a detailed study of the technology -- they're 
waiting first for city council to approve a strategy on how to manage growth 
in the city.

The growth strategy will be discussed Monday by council and staff hope to 
finalize a plan in June.


http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2008/03/27/5116016-sun.html