Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Env-626: Barrie Landfill Reclamation And Re-Engineering 2009-2015, Paul J. Dewaele, Sandra Brunet

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The City of Barrie’s municipal solid waste landfill is located in a depleted sand pit and is in close proximity to residential development. The landfill opened in the 1960s and was slated for closure in 2017. Originally designed as a natural attenuation facility, leachate seepage from the waste to the groundwater and an adjacent stream, posed environmental risks and compliance issues. The risks were mitigated through a project completed between 2008 and 2015, involving the progressive excavation of approximately 1.6 million cubic metres of waste in the western 2/3 of the landfill, installation of an engineered state-of-the-art liner and leachate …

Env-634: Microbial Subsurface Repopulation Following In Situ Star Remediation, Gavin J. Overbeeke, Jason Gerhard, Elizabeth Edwards

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

STAR (Self-sustaining Treatment for Active Remediation) is an emerging remediation technology that employs a self-sustaining smouldering reaction to destroy nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) in the subsurface. The reaction front travels at rates of 0.5 to 5 m per day and subjects the soil to temperatures between 400°C and 1200°C (Pironi et al. 2011; Switzer et al. 2009). Consequently, not only does STAR cause an in situ destruction of NAPL, but it dries and sterilizes the soil through which it passes (Pape et al. 2015). Microbial recolonization of these sterile treated zones is important to the overall remediation of the site, …

Env-636: Soil Aquifer Treatment Of Secondary Effluents And Csos In Southwestern Ontario, Diego Velasquez, Ernest Yanful, Weijian Sun

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Wastewater reclamation is becoming an important alternative for sustainable water resources management and building climate change resiliency in many regions around the world. The purpose of this research was to investigate the polishing of secondary effluents and Combine Sewer Overflows (CSOs) by a laboratory scale Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) considering local sub-surface geology and wastewater characteristics. Results show that characteristic soils of southwestern Ontario can effectively polish secondary effluents in terms of BOD5 (64.9% to 100%), e-coli (100%) and total coliforms (100%). However, low removals of DOC (22.81%) and Nitrate (15.17 %) were achieved. Furthermore, low to moderate improvements of …

Env-637: Using Lif To Establish Monitoring Well Network Of Migrating Lnapl Plume In The Vicinity Of Surface Water, Laura J. Jones

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The former Michigan Avenue Landfill (the “Site”, now Canatara Park) was used by the City of Sarnia for disposal of municipal waste between approximately 1930 and 1967. Between approximately 1930 and 1944, oily waste was reportedly disposed of at the Site from one of the local refineries. This waste material was reportedly a by-product of a process that used clay to remove colour impurities during the production of automobile lubricating oil.

In 1997, light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) was discovered at the southwest shore of Lake Chipican, north of the Site. In response, temporary measures were taken by the City …

Env-638: Advanced Techniques For Site Characterization: Real-Time High-Resolution Site Characterization Of The Subsurface Using Mip, Lif And Hpt, Patrick O'Neill

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

In-situ site characterization can be a key component of site delineation and remediation. In-situ site characterization allows for large amounts of detailed data to be collected quickly and cost-effectively compared to traditional techniques. These data, combined with traditional Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) methods, greatly enhance the understanding of the presence, concentration and distribution of contaminants in the subsurface, which can lead to more efficient and focused monitoring and remediation programs.

Three high-resolution characterization technologies have recently been introduced to Canada. These include the Membrane Interface Probe (MIP) for dissolved-phase contamination, the Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) probe for free-phase petroleum …

Env-639: Impact Of Vegetation Type And Climate On Evapotranspiration From Extensive Green Roofs, Maria Eloisa Sia, Denis M. O'Carroll, Clare Robinson, James A. Voogt, Charles C. Smart, Danielle A. Way

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Stormwater management solutions are needed to increase resiliency within urban areas by: (1) maintaining the natural hydrologic cycle, (2) controlling erosion and flooding, and (3) protecting water quality (MOE, 2003). Large impervious areas from urban development results in the loss of vegetated surfaces which leads to an increase in direct runoff (e.g. Paul and Meyer, 2008). Within urban areas, conventional roofs cover 40-50% of the impervious surfaces giving them significant potential to host urban stormwater management solutions (Dunnett and Kingsbury, 2004). Green roofs are able to restore the altered hydrologic cycle closer to its natural state by reducing the volume …

Env-640: Treatment Of Combined Sewer Overflow Using A Natural Coagulant, Omotola Ajao, Rajesh Seth, Paul Drca, Chris Manzon, Nihar Biswas

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The hazards posed by combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to receiving water bodies cannot be overemphasised. CSOs can be a significant contributor of pollutants to receiving waterbodies. Ontario’s F-5-5 procedure stipulates a treatment target of a minimum 50% reduction in suspended solids (SS) and 30% reduction in 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) for CSOs in the province. The physicochemical coagulation process is an effective and widely used treatment process to achieve these targets. The City of Windsor, Ontario currently uses a synthetic organic coagulant for coagulation at its retention treatment basin (RTB) for CSO treatment. However, environmental persistence and potential toxic …

Env-641: New Methods For Design And Performance Monitoring Of Sub-Slab Venting Systems For Vocs And Radon, Darius Mali, Paul Nicholson, William Wertz, Todd Mcalary

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

This paper summarizes recent research funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) intended to improve the cost-effectiveness of systems to protect building occupants from subsurface radon gas and volatile organic compound (VOC) vapors. Standard practice for sub-slab depressurization (SSD) uses a fan or blower to create a measurable vacuum below the building and has not changed in a few decades. ASTM E-2121-13 specifies a minimum target vacuum of 6 to 9 Pascals (Pa) everywhere below the building floor slab, but this can be difficult to measure compared to baseline fluctuations (a signal-to-noise challenge). A …

Env-643: Sub-Slab Depressurization System Retrofits To Existing Buildings: Two Case Studies, Theresa M. Phillips, Ronald Taylor, Darko Strajin

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Ontario Regulation 153/04 outlines the process wherein a property impacted by soil and/ or ground water contaminants is evaluated for risks to human and ecological health, and may be redeveloped for more sensitive land uses. Under the Regulation, once a property has been sufficiently characterized, a Record of Site Condition (RSC) may be filed, to document the condition of the property. Owners of contaminated lands may choose to remediate the property, to meet the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) generic soil and ground water Standards, or develop new site-specific Standards via the Risk Assessment (RA) process.

Many …

Env-644: Use Of New Models To Support Vapour Intrusion Mitigation Design, Ian Hers, Parisa Jourabchi, Eric Hood, Michael Z'Graggen

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Soil vapour intrusion of subsurface volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into indoor air of buildings is a significant potential concern at existing sites where chemical releases occur, or at new buildings at Brownfield sites with residual chemical impacts. While soil vapour intrusion mitigation systems are increasingly being implemented, there are limited published data on mitigation performance for VOCs particularly for industrial or commercial buildings or high density residential buildings with below ground parking garages. Data gaps include the effectiveness of passive and active venting systems and reduction in vapour intrusion that can be achieved relative to unmitigated buildings. Because of lack …

Env-645: Risk Assessment For Asbestos In Soil, Natasha Corrin, Sandra Carrelas

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

On behalf of the City of Sarnia (the City), Golder Associates Ltd. completed a risk assessment to evaluate potential risks to human health and ecological receptors associated with soil and groundwater contamination at a multi-use recreational municipal park located on the City’s harbour front. Soil and groundwater investigations completed at the site revealed elevated concentrations of a number of typical industrial contaminants (including metals, volatile organic compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon) relative to generic regulatory standards. Options for the management/remediation of these impacts were complicated by the observed presence of asbestos in soil at the site and the …

Env-646: Successful Water Reuse – The First Step Toward Zld, Ed Greenwood, Bill Malyk

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

After years of record-breaking droughts many aquifers around the World are drying up. Climate change is making it increasingly difficult to support the World’s growing population. If water means life then water scarcity represents a significant challenge to growth for industry.

A Canadian-based food processor is rising to the challenge of water scarcity at one of its production facilities in Gujarat, India. Until 2013 the facility was able to draw all the water it needed from a well. However, droughts have reduced groundwater resources and the demand for the facility’s products has grown. The food processor approached Amec Foster Wheeler …

Env-647: Repurposing Existing Infrastructure For Enhanced Wet Weather Flow Treatment For Vauxhall Pcp, City Of London, Louis Tasfi, Geordie Gould

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The Vauxhall Pollution Control Plant (PCP) is one of the first Ontario municipal wastewater treatment plants to have implemented a wet weather strategy that involves chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) and chemically enhanced secondary clarification processes and repurposes existing infrastructure.

Wet weather events were a major concern for the City of London (City). Prior to plant upgrade, when major wet weather flows occurred plant overflow would discharge directly into the Thames River. The solution designed by Dillon Consulting Limited treats wet weather flows of nearly ten times the rated average day plant capacity. The average and peak flow treatment capacity …

Env-648: Design Optimization For Enhanced Pollutant Removal Efficiency Of Bioretention Cells, Soheil Gholamreza-Kashi, Thomas Tiveron, Darko Joksimovic

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Consulting engineers, conservation authorities, and municipalities are looking for methods of stormwater management control that not only restore pre-development hydrological cycles, but also offer the benefit of runoff quality treatment. As a result, Low Impact Development (LID) approaches, which are often applied at the source, have been gaining in popularity. The objective of this research is to develop guidance for the design of bioretention cells for runoff water quality treatment, evaluating bioretention cells’ ability to perform such treatment function through modelling. A number of different modelling tools have been developed to simulate the performance of bioretention cells. These models are …

Env-650: Two Case Studies: Delivery Of Decentralized Wastewater Solutions In Ontario And India, Gillian C. Dumencu, Yuxin Wang, Wilf G. Stefan

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

This paper presents two case studies for the delivery of wastewater servicing solutions: one in Ontario, Canada and the other in Gujarat State, India. In each case a decentralized small diameter gravity sewer wastewater collection and treatment system was implemented for servicing residential development—with some interesting differences and similarities. The first case is a small private mobile home park in Eastern Ontario under a Ministry of Environment Order to address failing on-site septic systems. The Municipality was obliged to take over operation of the on-site systems; however, there were not adequate funds available to rectify the failing systems. A group …

Env-651: Highly Effective Electro-Fenton Oxidation Treatment For Concentrated Brewery Wastewater, Sharmin Sultana, Md. Saifur Rahaman, Alexander Baltodano

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

The brewing industry typically produces 3-10 liters of wastewater per liter of beer produced which contains sugars, soluble starch, ethanol, and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and is typically characterized by 2,000-20,000 mg/L COD, 200-3,000 mg/L total suspended solids (TSS), and 10-124 mg/L phosphorus. In this study, the high strength brewery wastewater was treated with a multi-plated (BDD/Graphite) electrolysis cell configuration with Fenton’s reagent in a galvanostatic mode of operation. A novel cell configuration with five electrode plates (BDD/Graphite), which provide a higher current/voltage ratio than the conventional three plate configuration, was used in this study to provide more surface for …

Env-652: Conventional Vs Low Impact Development Stormwater Management Case Studies, Imtiaz Shah, Ron Antuma

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Low Impact Development (LID) Stormwater Management (SWM) techniques is the appropriate approach to be applied to site developments in an attempt to mimic a site’s natural hydrologic cycle to store and treat stormwater runoff close to where it falls. In 2014, the UTRCA conducted a survey of member municipalities to gauge a familiarity with SWM LIDs to help UTRCA effectively target their efforts regarding SWM LID during a development and planning process at the Municipal level. Several issues were highlighted from the survey results, including the presence of institutional, technical, and physical barriers, as well as a general lack of …

Env-653: Production Of Biosurfactant By Rhodococcus Erythropolis Sp. Cultivated In A Novel Fish Waste Compost Extract Substrate, Khoshrooz Kazemi, Baiyu Zhang, Leonard M. Lye

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Compost generated through fish waste composting could provide an effective source of nutrient-rich organic matter for microbial growth, leading to the production of valuable products such as biosurfactants. Existing biosurfactant production is a relative expensive process and raw materials contribute about 30% of the production cost. Utilizing waste streams such as fish waste compost (FWC) as a substrate is an economically viable alternative. In this study, biosurfactant was produced by Rhodococcus erythropolis sp. P6-4P, a strain isolated from the North Atlantic Ocean. Biosurfactant production with FWC extract was compared with other soluble and insoluble carbon and nitrogen sources using emulsification …

Env-654: Numerical Modelling Of Smouldering Combustion To Optimize Ex Situ Soil Treatment System Design, Rebecca L. Solinger, Jason I. Gerhard, Gavin P. Grant, Grant C. Scholes

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

There is widespread soil contamination at thousands of cites in Canada resulting from the historical improper storage and disposal of industrial liquids (Story et al., 2014). Large financial resources are allocated to remediation efforts due to the human and environmental health risks associated with exposure to such contamination, with over $582 million CAN spent on remediation in 2014-15 by the Canadian government alone (Treasury Board of Canada, 2016). Our scientific understanding of site remediation has evolved greatly over the past decades and it is now widely accepted that remediation of the contaminant source zone is necessary to achieve a high …

Regrowth Of Chlorella Sorokiniana On Recycled Media With Replenished Nutrients, William H. Spence

Master's Theses

Growth media recycling during algae cultivation is necessary to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of biofuel production from algae feedstocks. Without recycling media, the cost of algae based biofuel production would be prohibitively high and large scale algae based biofuel production would not be economically viable. The ratio of media recycled to media wasted assumed for algae farms is generally calculated to maintain salt concentrations below growth inhibitory levels, ignoring the influence of secondary metabolites which might decrease productivity. Secondary metabolites, which include allelopathic or auto-inhibitory biological contaminants, might lead to the accumulation of growth-inhibiting compounds in recycled …