In late 1999, the Regional District of Central Okangan entered into a partnership with the District of Lake Country to construct and operate a facility to treat septic wastes generated within the boundaries of the Regional District. The new facility is located at the District of Lake Country’s Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and commenced operations at the end of May 2000.
The facility was delivered using a design/build/operate (DBO) approach lead by Aquatrol Technologies Ltd as the facility manager/operator, in partnership with Reid Crowther & Partners Ltd as the engineering consultant and Maple Reinders as the construction manager. The new facility was designed, constructed and commissioned within five months and is able to treat in excess of 2.5 million gallons of septic waste annually. The treatment facility includes grit removal, fine screening, flow equalization, centrifuge dewatering, centrate treatment for phosphorus removal, and lime addition for alkalinity adjustment. The dewatered biosolids are hauled to the City of Kelowna’s centralized composting facility where it is stabilized and recycled into an agricultural product.
In a novel approach to minimize the cost of the new facility, unit processes within Lake Country’s existing WWTP were utilized to the extent possible. These unit processes included the existing inlet channels and fine screen, the biosolids storage vault, the dissolved air flotation system and the odour control system. The liquid centrate from the new facility will be metered at a controlled rate into the existing Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) treatment plant for final polishing and disposal.
Aquatrol Technologies Ltd will operate the new facility under contract to the District of Lake Country and will bill the District on a volume/load based fee approach.
A win-win partnership for all parties, most importantly the tax payers in the Regional District of Central Okanagan and the District of Lake Country.