Bruce Linton of Clearford Industries Inc. (Etienne Ranger, OBJ)

Clean-tech firms look to environmental legislation in their own backyards

A pair of Ottawa-area clean-tech firms is hoping new environmental standards surrounding wastewater treatment in Ontario will create new demand for their products from municipalities in their home province.

Executives at Kanata-based Clearford Industries Inc., and Bishop Aquatic Technologies Inc. in Renfrew County, both say sales of their respective wastewater treatment technologies elsewhere in Canada and around the world have historically overshadowed any successes in Ontario.

Bishop Aquatic, whose 'Geotube' container technology reduces the volume of sludge left over from wastewater treatment, has undergone more than three years of trials for the provincial government, even though more than 70 communities use its technology in Quebec alone. Meanwhile, Clearford's small bore sewer wastewater collection system has been more popular in jurisdictions with "a more thoughtful regime of protecting water" than Ontario, said company president Bruce Linton.

Both companies hope a mass of fresh environmental legislation and regulations, coupled with evolving public attitudes towards water contamination, will help turn the tide.

"We now believe there may be an opportunity to succeed in Ontario," said Mr. Linton.

"These things at least create a framework where you have some legislation to point to and advocate your solution in a context where there are some goalposts."

Specifically, Mr. Linton points to Ontario's Clean Water Act, which came into effect earlier this year when watershed-based committees across the province began drafting plans to reduce risks to drinking water sources.

Conventional sewer pipes lie in trenches and allow staggering volumes of water to leak in each day, said Mr. Linton, adding the water is conveyed to a treatment plant and discharged even dirtier than it began.

"That's a really bad way to manage your source waters because they never had a chance to go through the ground and become groundwater," he said.

In contrast, Clearford's sealed pipe network prevents water from entering the sewer system, which also reduces the volume of wastewater arriving at treatment plants.

This cuts down on surges experienced during rainfalls that can force plant operators in cities such as Ottawa to bypass treatment and dump raw sewage into receiving waters.

The reaction of local residents this year to several high-profile cases of raw sewage being dumped into the Ottawa River suggested to Mr. Linton that attitudes towards existing wastewater treatment procedures are changing.

"More and more ... these nasty things we've done for hundreds of years to the river begin to look like really bad ideas," he said.

Another feature of Clearford's technology is a lower volume of sewage sludge that must eventually be disposed, left over from the treatment process. The company's holding tanks allow more time for sludge to biodegrade, leaving almost no nutrients, said Mr. Linton.

Traditionally, sludge and septage pumped from septic tanks have been spread over farmland. But the provincial government is currently encouraging municipalities and hauling companies to begin treating septage, said Eileen Smith, manager of policy and special projects at the provincial Ministry of the Environment.

She added the government is committed to an eventual ban on land application of untreated septage, but is waiting for additional treatment capacity to be created.

"If the septic tank needs to be pumped, you've got to pump it. And once you pump it, you have to do something with it," she said, adding that although some facilities in Ontario accept septage, including Ottawa's R.O. Pickard Environmental Centre, some areas of the province don't have access to a facility with the treatment capacity.

Additionally, new regulations require wastewater treatment plants to have 240 days of storage capacity for sludge.

Bishop Aquatic Technologies president Don Bishop said his company's Geotube system, which is installed at wastewater treatment plants, separates liquids from solids in the leftover sludge or in septage. The liquid is pumped back into the plant for treatment, while dehydrated solids are left to be broken down by bacteria in the Geotube for several months.

The end nutrients can then be used in topsoil production or on golf courses and new subdivisions, he added.

Even though the technology is already used in other jurisdictions, such as Quebec and Brazil, Mr. Bishop said the province of Ontario has spent more than three years studying the Geotube in operation at the Eganville wastewater treatment facility and has indicated at least 10 more months of observation are required.

While the company has its origins in developing solutions for the fish farming industry, Mr. Bishop said he expects the implementation of these new regulations under the Nutrient Management Act will be a boon for his business as municipalities look for alternatives to costly expansions of their treatment plant capacity while septage haulers seek solutions to comply with the new rules.

"Our growth over the next few years will be astronomical," he predicted.

In addition to individual firms eyeing new opportunities, several Ottawa clean-tech firms are collaborating to take advantage of new business opportunities created by Ontario's Nutrient Management Act, said Ottawa Cleantech Initiative manager Marc McArthur.

While the details are still being worked out, Mr. McArthur said he expects a new partnership to be in place before the end of the year.

However, creating demand for wastewater treatment technologies is only one half of the business equation, said Clearford's Mr. Linton, explaining that Ontario still needs to create market conditions or funding mechanisms that encourage individuals to "buy better."

For example, a recent infrastructure grant program known as COMRIF, or the Canada-Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund, split the costs of improved bridges, roads and water treatment systems evenly between the three levels of government.

"If you are only paying for a third of something, your eagerness to seek out and find the next best solution that has all the cost savings is not there," he said, adding that infrastructure funding for wastewater treatment systems has historically been awarded to expansion or replacement projects, but is rarely given for brand-new systems.

"The politics of handing out big chunks of money to bury pipes in the ground going past a few houses is not a good political move."

Both Mr. Linton and Mr. Bishop say their future opportunities may lie in some form of public-private partnership, where the companies build and, in the case of Clearford, operate the systems, leaving municipalities with the responsibility of collecting monthly fees.

However, Mr. Linton said he's made the proposition to several Ontario municipalities, and has yet to find an interested partner, even though other jurisdictions, notably in the U.K., have largely embraced wastewater public-private partnerships.

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BATHROOM BREAK

New legislation, combined with a shift in public opinion, is said to have the potential to increase demand for wastewater treatment technology in Ontario.

Clean Water Act

Earlier this year, watershed-based committees started their work drafting plans to reduce threats to drinking water sources.

Nutrient Management Act

Introduced in 2002, there are several regulations that are either being planned or have recently come into effect, including minimum sludge storage requirements for wastewater treatment plants and a ban on land application of septage.

Changing public attitudes

Ontario's abundant water supplies have meant the province has historically lagged behind other jurisdictions in protecting water, argued Clearford Industries Inc. president Bruce Linton. However, the outcry over recent sewage spills in the Ottawa River suggests attitudes are evolving, he added.