Iona Island Wastewater Treatment Plant

[casper]

Originally Posted by libtard

A sewage treatment plant tailings pond is basically a superfund sight. It’s going to be a massive undertaking to remediate the contaminated soil in the area that has elevated levels of god knows how many chemicals and carcinogens

Can't they just haul it away to a landfill site? Perhaps a landfill site creating an artificial island to accommodate a third runway?

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by casper

Can't they just haul it away to a landfill site? Perhaps a landfill site creating an artificial island to accommodate a third runway?

They are already draining and dredging the biosolids. They're getting trucked off somewhere..

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by casper

Can't they just haul it away to a landfill site? Perhaps a landfill site creating an artificial island to accommodate a third runway?

Take a look at Iona on Google Maps - there's barely enough waste soil in the ponds for any kind of reclamation to be worth it, and even then you gotta clean it up first. A wetland gets you that cleanup plus a lot of wildlife for very little money.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Take a look at Iona on Google Maps - there's barely enough waste soil in the ponds for any kind of reclamation to be worth it, and even then you gotta clean it up first. A wetland gets you that cleanup plus a lot of wildlife for very little money.

They reclaim some of the biosolids for their "fertilizer" product or dispose of it.

http://www.metrovancouver.org/servic...s/default.aspx

When wastewater comes into the plant, it is treated to reduce solids and organic matter content. During the treatment, solids are heated and broken down by naturally occurring microorganisms, which reduce harmful bacteria and odours. The final product is an earth-like material that can be applied to land as fertilizer that Metro Vancouver calls Nutrifor.

However, with a growing population, in 2015, Metro Vancouver embarked on three projects to improve wastewater treatment and storage of solids:

Upgrades to a primary sludge thickener, which is now complete and is back in full service;
Construction of a new solids handling building equipped with grit and screenings removal facilities and a new sludge thickener, which is nearing completion. The equipment has been installed and tested, and plant staff are getting ready to start using this new process in late July;
Upgrades to all four anaerobic sludge digesters with improved mixing are underway and scheduled for completion in 2020.
BioSolids Dewatering Facility:

The digested sludge is thickened in four large sludge lagoons and then transferred to a land-drying area at the plant, before it is trucked off site for beneficial use or disposal. In preparation for the plant’s upgrade, the lagoons and the biosolids stockpile in the land drying area need to be removed. Without the lagoons available to store and thicken sludge, a new biosolids dewatering facility is needed by the end of 2020.

http://www.metrovancouver.org/metrou...atment%20Plant

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They reclaim some of the biosolids for their "fertilizer" product or dispose of it.

http://www.metrovancouver.org/servic...s/default.aspx



http://www.metrovancouver.org/metrou...atment%20Plant

Indeed. Yet adding a wetland and river delta does the same without additional effort - New Jersey, for example.

[libtard]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

And one of the best ways to remediate said heavy contamination is by adding an ecosystem full of things that see it as a food source. We're not adding toxic waste to a swamp, we're adding a swamp to toxic waste.

That was a 50 million dollar project of soil remediation and intense ground water filtration. And Imperial Oil footed the bill (like most superfund sites the company that did the pollution is held accountable). Since metro Vancouver is touting their new facility as $52 million dollars, I doubt this environmental cleanup job even sees a fraction of that amount

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by libtard

That was a 50 million dollar project of soil remediation and intense ground water filtration. And Imperial Oil footed the bill (like most superfund sites the company that did the pollution is held accountable). Since metro Vancouver is touting their new facility as $52 million dollars, I doubt this environmental cleanup job even sees a fraction of that amount

As mentioned, Imperial Oil and the EPA have just realized that they don't need to spend any more (and probably should've spent less) since nature's doing it for free.

But this is all academic - the wetland is already part of the $52M facility, as per last year's discussion on Page 1; fifty million in private money, fifty million in public money, same thing. This year's discussion is literally just digging three holes in the jetty on top of that to create more mudflats.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by libtard

Since metro Vancouver is touting their new facility as $52 million dollars, I doubt this environmental cleanup job even sees a fraction of that amount

Er no, on so many levels. This is a multi billion dollar project taking until 2030. The $52m is just for the new dewatering plant that allows Metro Vancouver to decommission the settlement lagoons. Those aren't particularly toxic, as there's no buildup of dried sludge as it's removed once it's dried out. Some of it is processed into landscaping material, but there's big piles of it elsewhere on the site (where they aren't planning on creating any wetlands) that will need to be removed so more of the new plant can be built in the next few years. "Metro Vancouver estimates that there are 200,000 tons of bio-solids on site that have to be removed with trucks now hauling the material away. In early February, there remained 180,000 tons to be taken to gravel pits, mine reclamation projects or used for landscaping." More here.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Er no, on so many levels. This is a multi billion dollar project taking until 2030. The $52m is just for the new dewatering plant that allows Metro Vancouver to decommission the settlement lagoons. Those aren't particularly toxic, as there's no buildup of dried sludge as it's removed once it's dried out. Some of it is processed into landscaping material, but there's big piles of it elsewhere on the site (where they aren't planning on creating any wetlands) that will need to be removed so more of the new plant can be built in the next few years. "Metro Vancouver estimates that there are 200,000 tons of bio-solids on site that have to be removed with trucks now hauling the material away. In early February, there remained 180,000 tons to be taken to gravel pits, mine reclamation projects or used for landscaping." More here.

Why not fill for a airport expansion. It is just across the street.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by casper

Why not fill for a airport expansion. It is just across the street.

The plans to add a fourth runway, as far as I know, are on land already in existance to the south of the existing south runway. Richmond were opposed to adding another runway. The airport's existing expansion plans have been put on hold for the time being, so adding any new runway is probably many, many years away. The removal of the bio-solids is being done now as the upgraded plant is needed as soon as it can be built (by 2030 in the current plans).

Adding more land to Sea Island to build a runway would no doubt take years to get the necessary environmental approvals (if they could obtain them). Bio-solids probably aren't the appropriate material to use to create new land anyway, that's usually inert fill like sand pumped up from the seabed.