Hamilton Ontario - planned sludge plant open house
The Hamilton Spectator News
Friday, October 18, 2002, p. A10
Thin crowd visits open house for planned sludge plant
Eric McGuinness, The Hamilton Spectator
American Water, the company that runs Hamilton's water and sewage treatment plants, says it can use a shut-down Brampton Street factory to turn sewage sludge into fertilizer without nuisance odours, air pollution or noise. It presented the plan at a sparsely attended open house Wednesday night. Zen Matwiyiw, who lives on Waterloo Street, complained that too few people knew about the event. Jennette Lukasik, a Mountain resident, questioned the safety of the fertilizer. A number of others just looked and listened. Company officials said notices went to homes in the surrounding area as well as to 70 area industries and 100 neighbourhood organizations.
A few of those who turned up were unhappy shareholders in Thermo-Tech, now based in Malaysia, which abandoned the plant that once turned waste food into animal feed. Before closing a year ago, Thermo-Tech installed a storey-high, 21-metre long, gas-fired dryer, a pelletizer and a thermal-oxidation air cleaner that have never been used. American Water is leasing those facilities with an eye to processing sludge. To do so, it will have to apply to the Ministry of the Environment to amend the plant's certificate of approval and obtain Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval for its fertilizer labels.
American Water has spent two months cleaning the plant but hasn't touched several large fermentation tanks still filled with food waste slurry. Don Hoekstra, American Water's pellet expert, said the company built and runs a Windsor plant producing fertilizer sold for use on row crops, golf courses and sod farms in Essex County and Chatham-Kent.
The Hamilton plant would have a capacity to accept 200 tonnes a day -- seven or eight truckloads -- of damp sludge, which would pass through the dryer on a stainless-steel belt, exposed for 45 minutes to a temperature of 138 C -- hot enough to sterilize medical equipment and kill any harmful bacteria. The resulting dry pellets will weigh 60 tonnes, enough to fill two trucks.
Hoekstra said the air cleaner will incinerate any organic, odour-causing gases. The first potential customer is the Niagara region, which Hoekstra said is interested in drying 25 per cent of its sludge rather than spreading it directly on farm fields. The Burlington Skyway plant and Hamilton's Woodward Avenue plant are other possible sources. Pellets are lighter and cheaper to transport than liquid sludge, which is 96 per cent water, or partly dry sludge cake at 70 per cent water.
Fred Eisenberger, port authority chairman, and Burlington's Quorum Communications have been hired to help American Water promote its plan. You can contact Eric McGuinness at emcguinness@thespec.com or at 905-526-4650.
Friday, October 18, 2002, p. A10
Thin crowd visits open house for planned sludge plant
Eric McGuinness, The Hamilton Spectator
American Water, the company that runs Hamilton's water and sewage treatment plants, says it can use a shut-down Brampton Street factory to turn sewage sludge into fertilizer without nuisance odours, air pollution or noise. It presented the plan at a sparsely attended open house Wednesday night. Zen Matwiyiw, who lives on Waterloo Street, complained that too few people knew about the event. Jennette Lukasik, a Mountain resident, questioned the safety of the fertilizer. A number of others just looked and listened. Company officials said notices went to homes in the surrounding area as well as to 70 area industries and 100 neighbourhood organizations.
A few of those who turned up were unhappy shareholders in Thermo-Tech, now based in Malaysia, which abandoned the plant that once turned waste food into animal feed. Before closing a year ago, Thermo-Tech installed a storey-high, 21-metre long, gas-fired dryer, a pelletizer and a thermal-oxidation air cleaner that have never been used. American Water is leasing those facilities with an eye to processing sludge. To do so, it will have to apply to the Ministry of the Environment to amend the plant's certificate of approval and obtain Canadian Food Inspection Agency approval for its fertilizer labels.
American Water has spent two months cleaning the plant but hasn't touched several large fermentation tanks still filled with food waste slurry. Don Hoekstra, American Water's pellet expert, said the company built and runs a Windsor plant producing fertilizer sold for use on row crops, golf courses and sod farms in Essex County and Chatham-Kent.
The Hamilton plant would have a capacity to accept 200 tonnes a day -- seven or eight truckloads -- of damp sludge, which would pass through the dryer on a stainless-steel belt, exposed for 45 minutes to a temperature of 138 C -- hot enough to sterilize medical equipment and kill any harmful bacteria. The resulting dry pellets will weigh 60 tonnes, enough to fill two trucks.
Hoekstra said the air cleaner will incinerate any organic, odour-causing gases. The first potential customer is the Niagara region, which Hoekstra said is interested in drying 25 per cent of its sludge rather than spreading it directly on farm fields. The Burlington Skyway plant and Hamilton's Woodward Avenue plant are other possible sources. Pellets are lighter and cheaper to transport than liquid sludge, which is 96 per cent water, or partly dry sludge cake at 70 per cent water.
Fred Eisenberger, port authority chairman, and Burlington's Quorum Communications have been hired to help American Water promote its plan. You can contact Eric McGuinness at emcguinness@thespec.com or at 905-526-4650.
posted by Sludge at 7:03 PM
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