Closing the loop on waste

Do you ever wonder what happens to the water you flush down your toilet everyday? Believe it or not, most of it ends up safely back in the Cheakamus River.

The flush is merely the beginning in Whistler, thanks to its sophisticated wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). All that water that goes down the drain is screened, munched, filtered and zapped with ultraviolet rays before returning to the river system.

At first glance, the wastewater treatment plant seems like your average municipal system but take a closer look and you’ll be surprised. The Wastewater Treatment Plant is one of the lasting legacies of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Did you know that during its journey, the inherent temperature of the wastewater actually provides space and water heating for the entire Athletes Village/ Cheakamus Crossing neighbourhood ? Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90 to 95 per cent compared to traditional methods. It all starts with a flush.

From landfill to Olympic venue

In 2003 as crowds celebrated news that Whistler would host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, folks at the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) were already thinking about waste.
Plans for the 2010 Winter Games included the construction of the Whistler Athletes Village in the Cheakamus Valley, which also meant the Whistler landfill, which was nearing the end of its life, needed to close ahead of schedule. News of the Games got the ball rolling on projects that had been in the works for years.

The construction of the Whistler Athlete’s Village adjacent to the recently closed municipal landfill meant that plans for infrastructure upgrades were also bumped up. The infrastructure was an important piece of the puzzle because after 2010 the Whistler Athlete’s Village was destined to become much-needed affordable resident housing to help the resort achieve its goals to house at least 75 per cent of Whistler workforce locally

In fact, plans to upgrade infrastructure such as the wastewater treatment plant were already part of Whistler 2020, the resort’s community vision and sustainability plan.  The Whistler 2020 strategies developed by the Whistler community created the framework for a new state-of the-art waste management system.

Waste Water Treatment Plant Upgrades

The new system included a $51.5 million upgrade to Whistler’s Waste Water Treatment Plant, including an industrial-sized composting facility. With construction complete, the RMOW now operates one of most advanced systems in the country.

Construction began in August 2008 and is expected to be completed October 15, 2009 and all of the upgrades were designed with sustainability in mind. Sustainable elements include changing the treatment process to eliminate the need for chemicals through the use of microbes. The project was funded by a combination of municipal reserves, contributions from the federal/provincial infrastructure program and long-term financing.

“Instead of using chemicals we have a biological process that uses microbes that essentially chew up harmful nutrients in the plant,” said James Hallisey, Manager, Environmental Projects, Resort Municipality of Whistler.

These microbes reduce nitrogen and ammonia toxicity, which in turn minimizes impacts to the Cheakamus River. Ultra violet disinfection is also used to reduce reliance on chemicals such as chlorine. UV disinfection delivers up to 1,000 times the level of protection over standard treatment against waterborne diseases such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia.The new system is not only better for the environment, but will also minimize odour.

“We actually blow bubbles into tanks full of wastewater because the microbes need oxygen. Adding the bubbles also takes care of the stinky air, effectively scrubbing it,” Hallisey said.

After being treated, the temperature of the treated water is then used as an energy source for climate control of the operations building and pumped into the District Energy System for the Whistler’s Athletes Village.

New treatment units at the plant include a secondary clarifier, a new primary sludge fermenter, the UV disinfection building, a soda ash silo and a biolsolids dewatering building, as well as a blower building with a room to the house the primary heat exchangers for the District Energy System.

The plant and new operating building is built to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver standards. All the buildings incorporate as much natural lighting as possible, high efficiency lighting and low flow plumbing fixtures will be used throughout.

District Energy System

Before the treated water flows back into the Cheakamus River, it does something rather remarkable – it provides space and water heating for the Athletes Village Neighbourhood.
The District Energy System (DES) is one of the highest profile aspects of the RMOW’s waste management system and earned the 2009 CAMA (Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators) Environmental Award as well as the 2008 Community Energy Association’s Energy Action Award for Community Planning and Development.

The unique system was designed as part of the RMOW’s strategy for applying sustainable principles to infrastructure. Led by the RMOW’s Environmental Services department, and supported by Terasen and the Whistler Development Corporation for the Athletes Village, the project is the first innovative step in the larger aspiration to develop a renewable-energy (ground source heat pump-based) district energy system for the entire Whistler Village core.

“This is an innovative alternative energy system that effectively leverages all of the showers, toilets and hot water going into the sewers in Whistler,” said Ted Battiston, Whistler Centre for Sustainability’s Energy & Emissions Manager.

The Whistler system extracts low-temperature ambient heat from treated wastewater effluent, making the system flexible enough to provide both heating and cooling for approximately 2,200 users occupying 85,000 square meters of space. 

The district energy system actually provides approximately 95 per cent of the space and water heating for the entire neighbourhood. It is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent compared to using standard baseboard electric heating and by 95 per cent compared to natural gas for space and water heating. Moreover, the financial feasibility assessments show that the project as planned saves money in the long run.

“Our life cycle cost-benefit analysis indicated that the system will have significant financial and environmental benefits compared to conventional electrical and gas-fired heating systems. The DES system is to be the primary source for all residential accommodation within the Village,” said Neil McDonald, DES project manager.

In terms of your own home, space and water heating typically represents about 65 per cent of the energy used, totaling approximately $350 in annual utility bills and roughly 2.5 tonnes of GHG emissions for most of us.

The DES demonstrates community leadership, builds local capacity and provides on-the-ground evidence that these types of systems are strategic long-term fiscal investments,” Battiston said. “The return on investment is substantial and will be shared in the future.”

Composting

Not only does Whistler’s Waste Water Treatment Plant help to heat an entire neighbourood it also produces very little waste thanks to the new composting facility. It’s yet another success story of the waste system.

Just south of town, at the entrance to the Callaghan Valley, the Whistler Composting Facility composts biosolids from Whistler's wastewater treatment plant, along with a mixture of wood chips, and commercial and residential food waste diverted from Whistler's solid waste stream. This site has already drawn visitors from across Canada and beyond.

"Whistler is leading the way with a facility that which showcases the full cycle of waste management. Seeing our biosolids, organic waste, and wood waste go into this system to produce compost or biofuel that can be sold and used locally or regionally is something our community can be proud of,” said Mayor Ken Melamed.

The facility isn’t your average backyard composter. It consists of two 70-metre-long climate controlled tunnels that take approximately two weeks to process waste products into compost. The end result is a Class A compost, which can be cured and sold as premium compost or mixed with sand or peat to produce landscaping amenities. The compost can also be dried and cured for an additional 60 to 90 days to produce biofuel for sale to commercial operations.

Food waste and organics comprise roughly a third of all household waste, not including sewage waste that can be captured at a treatment plant. Before the advent of composting, remnants of everything consumed were discarded into the landfill and organic matter did not break down naturally – lacking the right mix of oxygen moisture, carbon and nitrogen. The byproduct was methane gas, which when released into the atmosphere is 21 times more harmful to global climatic systems that carbon dioxide.

Currently the composting facility handles around 50 tonnes a day, five days a week. In 2007, Whistler's production of landfill waste was more than 600 kilograms per person. Whistler's new composting facility has the potential to divert more than 5,000 tonnes (five million kilograms) of organic material annually (the equivalent of more than 20 per cent of our total waste) from the landfill. By working together, this system provides an important asset to help our community take a substantial step toward our collective goal of becoming a "zero waste" community.