2/19/2019 The City of Calgary - Wastewater treatment online tour

Wastewater treatment online tour

Calgary has three wastewater treatment facilities:

Fish Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant

Pine Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant

Together, these treatment plants meet the wastewater

Click image to view full size
and sewage needs of more than one million Calgarians
image.
each day. We invite you to take the wastewater
treatment tour.For detailed descriptions of the recovery
process, click through the images in the following
diagram and learn more about Wastewater Treatment.

Liquid Stream

Collection System

When water runs down a sink, drain or toilet, it becomes

wastewater. Calgary has a system just for wastewater that
moves it by gravity and pumps it to one of three treatment
plants.
Protect your plumbing, our wastewater system and the environment

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2/19/2019 The City of Calgary - Wastewater treatment online tour

Putting fats, grease and oil down the sink can clog your pipes.
Objects like dental floss, tissue and rags can lead to sewer
backups. See a full list of items that can’t go down sinks, drains
and toilets.

Pump Station

Pump stations in Calgary move wastewater through the sewer

system to the plants.

Headworks

When wastewater reaches a plant, it passes through screens

that remove large materials such as plastic bags, toilet paper,
sticks and tennis balls.
The water then travels into grit tanks where heavy items settle to
the bottom. We take these materials to one of Calgary's three
landfills. From this point, the water flows by gravity to the
Primary Clarifiers.

Primary Clarifiers

Water is sent to large open-air tanks called primary clarifiers. It

takes about three hours for water to pass through the tanks, and
during that time solids settle to the bottom becoming sludge.
Oils, grease and fats are skimmed off the top.
The sludge and skimmed waste is pumped to digesters for
thickening and decomposition. This is the sludge-handling
process. The water from these tanks goes to the bioreactors.

Bioreactors

These large open-air tanks mix in high doses of micro-

organisms. The micro-organisms eat nutrients like phosphorus
and ammonia, and organic material. After about seven hours,
the water flows to the secondary clarifiers.

Secondary Clarifiers

Water enters the secondary clarifiers, where it is held for

another seven hours. Micro-organisms settle to the bottom of
the tank, where they are recycled back to the bioreactor.
The cleaner water flows to a weir around the edge of the clarifier
and is sent to the filtration and disinfection (U.V.) building.

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Disk Filters

At the Pine Creek plant, treated water flows through cloth-media

disk filters, improving quality by reducing solids, phosphorus and
algae before moving on to disinfection.

UV Disinfection

Treated water is exposed to ultraviolet light. This light disrupts

the micro-organisms' genetic material and makes them unable
to reproduce and cause disease.
This kind of disinfection adds no chemicals to the water before
returning it to the Bow River.

Back to the River

We return the water to the Bow River. It’s clear, colourless, high
in dissolved oxygen, and very low in solids, phosphorus,
ammonia, nitrogen and disease causing micro-organisms.
Our laboratories work seven days a week, 365 days a year. We
collect samples at all stages of treatment and in the biosolids
handling program, including Calgro. Our water meets the high
standards set by Alberta Environmental Protection.
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Solid Stream

Gravity Thickeners

Sludge from the primary clarifiers passes to gravity thickeners

for more settling. This thickens the sludge more before it’s
pumped to either the digesters or fermenters.

Fermenters

Sludge sent to the fermenters is thickened and some is used to

provide nutrients for the microorganisms in the bioreactors. The
remaining sludge is pumped to the digesters.

Digesters

Sludge enters warm oxygen-less digesters where, over a period

of 25 days, bacteria breaks down complex organic materials into
water, methane and carbon dioxide.
The digested sludge, now called biosolids, becomes less smelly
and many disease-causing organisms are destroyed. We then
pump the biosolids to our Shepard Lagoons.

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Biosolids Management Program

Our biosolids management program recovers and recycles

nutrient-rich organic matter for composting and agricultural
purposes.
In the spring and summer, the biosolids go to the Shepard
Lagoons to settle out for about six weeks. After settling out, the
final product is a nutrient-rich resource ready for our Calgro
program. It is transported by truck to agricultural lands where it
is applied using a terrakenny. Farmers who are enrolled with our
Calgro program use the organic matter and nutrients for crops
such as cereal grains, trees, sod, small oilseeds and dried
legumes. This program has been running for more than 30
years.
In the fall and winter months, much of the biosolids go to the de-
watering facility where the water is removed. The remaining
water is eventually pumped back to the wastewater treatment
process to be treated and returned to the river, and the de-
watered biosolids go to the composting facility to be further
processed for about 60 days, producing a high quality Category
A compost.

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