Municipal officials in the Alberta village of Big Valley want to undertake a geotechnical inspection of its wastewater lagoon, following alleged violations that date back to early 2022.   Big Valley’s Public Works Foreman, Monte DeMarco, noted in a February 2024 letter to environmental enforcement officers that upon starting his position earlier this year, he “discovered a history of turnover in key positions, resulting in minimal attention or direction given towards maintaining or meeting regulatory standards.”  Some of the violations raised by the Enforcement Branch of Environ ..read more

The K.J. Gardner, Canada’s largest quick-response flagship offshore supply vessel equipped for pollution cleanup, emergency towage and support duties, has a new home base in British Columbia’s Beecher Bay.   Packed with new spill-response equipment valued at about $6 million, the 74 metre-long K.J. Gardner can hold up to 1,000 tonnes of recovered oil and can act as an emergency towing vessel.   The vessel is now at a new base in Beecher Bay, some 30 km southwest of Victoria. Next to the Sc’ianew First Nations community, it joins other smaller spill-response vessels that are part of t ..read more

Equipment-based requirements to lower volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from a variety of oil and gas facilities are now in a 60-day consultation period from Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Health Canada.  If implemented, the new draft regulations are estimated to impact a total of 250 facilities spread across every province in the country, including terminals, refineries, upgraders, petrochemical facilities, and bulk fuel facilities. These are Canada’s largest source of VOC emissions, the departments stated.  According to 2019 federal data, total VOC emissions from these ..read more

As drought conditions push reservoir levels across southern Alberta to their lowest levels in decades, Lethbridge city council has announced “proactive steps” to address water supply concerns. A resolution passed at city council’s January 23 meeting suggested that Lethbridge officials explore programs to incentivize water conservation and start monthly updates on the status of drought and water supply conditions. The Oldman Reservoir dropped to 26% in November from summer levels of nearly 60%, its lowest levels since it was built in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the levels in the Saint Mary Rese ..read more

By Chris Keung, Ken Johnson, Luc Malo, Alfred Tsui, and Hossein Shafeghati Kangiqsualujjuaq, formerly known as George River, is a remote Inuit village in the Nunavik Region of northern Quebec, located 1,500 kilometres north of Montreal at 59 degrees north latitude. The community is located at the mouth of the George River on the east coast of Ungava Bay in Arctic Canada and has a population of approximately 1,000 people. Read the full article in ES&E Magazine’s February 2024 issue: The post Emergency water reservoir refill needed for Kangiqsualujjuaq, Northern Quebec appeared first on Env ..read more

Many northern water utilities face the challenge of ice formation within their water storage tanks. When ice forms in a water tank, pressure in the system can be adversely affected and residents can experience issues with their water supply as a result. Read the full article in ES&E Magazine’s February 2024 issue: The post Delivering a reliable water supply in all weather conditions using active tank mixing appeared first on Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine ..read more

By Tacoma Zach It was an unusually warm March in Southern Ontario. There had been several warmer days with the associated freeze-thaw cycles between night and day. One of my duties as a young engineer in the contract operations business was to check on various remote, unmanned customer sites. Read the full article in ES&E Magazine’s February 2024 issue:  The post Asset management strategies in remote and extreme environments appeared first on Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine ..read more

TC Energy Corporation’s plan to provide 1,000 megawatts to Ontario’s electricity grid through pumped hydro storage is set to form a long-term revenue framework, as the province outlines the project’s next steps. Using water and gravity, TC Energy explains that pumped storage acts like a “giant battery” that stores excess electricity by pumping water from Georgian Bay to an upper reservoir through a turbine when demand is low, then making the stored energy available when demand spikes. If developed, the facility for the $4.5-billion project would be co-located on the existing Canadian Army’s 4t ..read more

When it comes to the transportation of dangerous goods, Transport Canada is proposing to strengthen many existing rules, and introduce some new ones, as the department looks to align with U.S. and international regulations. The regulatory update is widely a response to concerns raised by stakeholders, inspectors, and local authorities, particularly when it comes to enhancing buffer car rules for railway transport, and removing exemptions around the transport of anhydrous ammonia for farming. Published in the December 9th edition of the Canada Gazette, Transport Canada states that The Transport ..read more

By Marshall Lampson Thoroughly understanding the nuances of the chemical’s properties is vital to maximize the operation and performance of the chemical delivery system, as well as the longevity of the chemical storage tank. If you simply design a tank based on generic factors such as size, material and capacity without defining the chemical used, you risk getting a non-optimal tank. Read the full article in ES&E Magazine’s October 2023 issue: The post How to build cost-effective storage solutions for wastewater treatment chemicals appeared first on Environmental Science & Engineering ..read more